LIBRARv or CONGRESS 
PLEADING ROOM FOR THE BLINO 






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Book. 



PRESENTED BY 



AW a\WcA c <*<^. 



THE GOLDEN RULE 



AND 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 



Concerning the Cause and Cure of 
OUR SOCIAL EVILS. 



BY 

GEORGE SCHORB, 

THE BLIND PREACHER OP EVANSTON. 



SECOND EDITION, 

With Slight Alterations and Some Additions. 



CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, 
1899. 



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DEDICATED TO MY DEAREST FRIEND, 

CHARLES W. PEARSON, 

PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE IN NORTHWESTERN 
UNIVERSITY. 



Gift. 





CONTENTS. 








Page 


The Story of My Life 


1 


Preface to the First Edition .... 


10 


Testimonials to the First Edition 


10 


Preface to the Second Edition 


12 


Chapter I. 


We All Believe in the Golden 






Rule 


15 


Chapter II. 


But Do We Practice It? . 


17 


Chapter III. 


Why Not? . 


45 


Chapter IV. 


Can We Practice It?— Rem- 






edies ..... 


68 


Chapter V. 


Intelligence 


73 


Chapter VI. 


Industry .... 


75 


Chapter VII. 


Economy .... 


81 


Chapter VIII. 


Virtue.— The Saloon . : 


86 


Chapter IX. 


The Home 


84 


Chapter X. 


The School .... 


99 


Chapter XI. 


Society .... 


101 


Chapter XII. 


Business .... 


114 


Chapter XIII. 


The Government 


124 


Chapter XIV. 


The Church 


144 


Chapter XV. 


Six Objections Considered 


151 


Chapter XVI. 


Obstacles .... 


173 


Chapter XVII 


. The Outlook . 


187 



THE GOLDEN RULE 

AND 
I 

THE RULE OF GOLD. 
THE RICH AND THE POOR. 

PUT YOURSELF IN HIS PLACE. 



THE STORY OF MY LIFE. 

My readers have expressed disappointment 
that, in the former edition, I did not insert my pic- 
ture and my history. I have therefore given you 
the picture of my person, and will now give you the 
picture of my life. I do not think it best to swell 
this volume with a long story of my poor and ob- 
scure life, but to gratify a kind curiosity, and with 
the hope of securing openings for work, I give the 
following sketch. 

I was born in the woods near Milwaukee, in 
1850, of poor German parents. I was so frail an 
infant, and so frequently in pain, that I was not ex- 
pected to live from day to day. I am told that I 
bawled day and night for eighteen months. But 
this was certainly a sign of strength as well as of 
weakness. It shows that I had grit enough to 



2 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

make myself heard and to assert my rights as I 
have done ever since. Thus early did I begin to 
battle for life. But I have enjoyed the battle. I did 
all my crying in my babyhood. Still I have never 
been rugged. I have always been called a con- 
sumptive. A thousand times I have been told that 
I was not long for this world. If I could be scared 
to death, I would be dead long ago, but I let peo- 
ple talk and I kept on talking. I realize, however, 
that my defective health has been more of a hin- 
drance to me than my blindness, and it may cut my 
life short. But I am still here and hope I shall be 
forty years more. 

I was born blind, or practically so. For the first 
six months I gave no evidence of sight. But grad- 
ually as I grew, I evinced a slight degree of vision. 
Till I was about eight years old, I could discern 
bright colors on bright days. I could even distin- 
guish the large capitals in the Child's Primer, but 
I never had sufficient sight to recognize my parents 
when I met them face to face. Little by little this 
feeble sight faded away, till I was totally blind at 
the age of eleven. 

During the same year my father died. My 
mother was left to struggle for life with five little 
children. I was good for nothing on account of my 
blindness, so I was sent to school. Thus my misfor- 
tune became my good fortune. Our pastor of the 
Lutheran Church took me to the School for the 
Blind at Janesville, Wis. 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 3 

Here I was under the tuition of Thomas H. Lit- 
tle, an accomplished scholar and thorough educator 
from Bowdoin College. I studied all the branches that 
were taught in the school and took private lessons 
besides of Mr. Little and of Mrs. Little who was a 
graduate of Oberlin. I read all the books that were 
then printed in raised letters. They were but few, 
but they were all good, works of the masters, and I 
tried to make myself master of them. From the 
time that I was fifteen years old, I took an active 
part in literary clubs, writing many essays, reciting 
countless selections from the best authors, and par- 
ticipating in every debate. At the age of eighteen 
I began to be employed as teacher in the school. 
I taught for several years, and might perhaps have 
retained my position for life. But I longed for a 
larger experience and a wider knowledge of the 
world. From my boyhood also I had desired to 
preach the gospel of good will. 

Accordingly in 1873 I entered the theological 
school at Evanston, 111. Professors and pupils 
asked what I expected to do among seeing students. 
I replied I expected to do what I could. I soon 
found that the discipline which I had received at 
Janesville gave me an advantage over many of my 
seeing classmates. It was not long before I won a 
hundred dollar prize which had been offered for the 
best essay on an important topic. I mention this 
for the encouragement of my blind friends who will 
read my book. This established me in the school 
and gave me many friends. My classmates read the 






4 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

lessons to me so that I was able to recite in class 
with the rest. 

When I had graduated I applied to the Wiscon- 
sin Conference for work. But my presiding elder 
said, "A blind man has no business to preach." 
I appealed to the bishop and he replied, "I think the 
elder is wise." So I returned to my home in Bur- 
lington, Wis, a shipwrecked man. This failure to 
receive an appointment was indeed a bitter disap- 
pointment. After all my years of preparation, and 
all my youthful hopes, I found myself without work, 
without prospects and without recognition. 

My own people were discouraged about me ; and 
said I had made a great mistake in resigning my 
place at Janesville. 

But the Baptist church of Burlington came to 
the rescue. They engaged me to fill their vacant 
pulpit for three months. Then the Methodist min- 
ister at Elkhorn asked me to relieve him of the 
Sunday evening service for ten months. After this 
I made an appointment for myself at a school- 
house eight miles from my home, some- 
times walking the entire distance. Here I 
labored as preacher and pastor for about four 
months. I still enjoy the memory of this work. It 
was very pleasant to me, but it did not give me a 
living support, so in midwinter I was compelled to 
abandon it. 

I now began to lecture here and there on various 
subjects. I often took advantage of the^ topic of the 
times, and also of the place where I happened to be. 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 5 

Thus during the Centennial year I gave a Centen- 
nial lecture. On Sunday I called it a Centennial 
sermon and took a text. As I was in Kansas during 
the Prohibition Campaign, I took the stump for 
"the amendment.'' Miss Willard and Bishop Ninde 
had given me generous letters of introduction 
which, like the magic words in old stories, opened 
many a door for me. But for six years I barely 
made expenses. I was often obliged to piece out my 
support by canvassing for books or pictures, or arti- 
cles of household use. I was never able to lay aside 
a dollar till I was thirty-one years old. 

For thirty years my life was a continual struggle 
with poverty, blindness, and disease. I used to 
think of it as my, "Thirty Years' War." It was not 
only a war of sharp conflicts without and 
within, but also of extreme privations. I will not 
dwell on this as it might give more pain to my read- 
ers than it ever gave me. 

But the war went on for twelve years more. 
I traveled and lectured in several states. I wandered 
to the western plains and then worked my way 
eastward to Boston, and gratified a lifelong desire to 
visit the American Athens. During these years I 
preached and lectured wherever I could, — in a 
schoolhouse, in a sod church, in a blacksmith shop, 
in a barn, from the steps of a hotel, from a wagon in 
the street, in the field, in the park, and also in many 
prominent pulpits and many college chapels. I 
preached under the auspices of thirty or more dif- 
ferent sects, including Roman Catholics, Unitarians, 



6 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

< 
Quakers, Spiritualists, Christian Scientists, Mor- 
mons, Dunkards, and the various shades of ortho- 
doxy. And they all declared that I was preaching 
their doctrine. Yet I had but one doctrine for all, 
namely, — be true, be pure, be kind. 

Wherever I went I made it a point to learn all 
I could about the place — Its natural, its artificial 
and its iiMorical features — When I called at the 
Boston University and addressed a body of the stu- 
dents, I told them how many places of historical and 
literary interest I had visited in and about Boston, 
and they declared that I had seen more in the city 
than they had ever seen there. I mention this to 
show that a blind man need not be shut out from 
the best things in life, but often sees more than the 
seeing. 

In all my wanderings I never had a traveling 
companion and seldom a guide. I have had many a 
bad bump and tumble, but never a serious 
injury. I have often been advised to keep a 
dog as a guide ; others have said that I ought to be 
married and have my w r ife travel with me. But I 
replied I did not want to make a companion of a 
dog, and I did not want to make a dog of a woman. 

Little by little, day by day, year after year, I 
saved enough money to secure a home, and have a 
nest-egg beside. It was the result of incessant work 
and rigid economy for seventeen hard and happy 
years. But with all my economy, I never asked any 
man for one cent, or for a mouthful to eat, or for a 
bed. Indeed I often refused such favors when they 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 7 

were offered. And I always paid my bills, even some- 
times when a merchant or landlord was willing to 
cancel my account. My friends sometimes said to 
me, when anyone was disposed to remit my bill, I 
should accept the courtesy and put that much more 
in the contribution box. But I replied, "It is more 
important to meet our business obligations than 
to be benevolent. First be just, then be as generous 
as you can." 

Though I have often spoken plainly about the 
shortcomings of th G v ^rnment and the church, yet 
I never sat down with folded arms and excused my- 
self from work by blaming society or Providence. 
But I always said, "In spite of everything, I can 
make a living/' and I did. I would sell pins, and 
live on ten cents a day, as I often did, rather than 
be dependent. 

In 1892 when I was forty-two years old I bought 
a house and lot in Evanston, not far from the col- 
lege. The dream of many years was realized. I had 
a home in a cultured community, and near my Alma 
Mater. 

At last I had a place where I could sit down 
with my books around me and my writing tablet be- 
fore me, and read and write undisturbed. Better 
still, I had a place where I could receive my friends, 
but best of all a place where I could bring my 
aged mother and my sister, and after years of sep- 
aration re-establish the old home. 

I still go out to lecture on such subjects as 
these : — 



S THE GOLDEN RULE. 

i. "The Fun of Being Blind/' or "Thorns and 
Roses." 

2. "Man Was Made to be Happy." 

3. "Making the Most of Life." 

4. "What Women can do." 

5. "The Beauties of Shakespeare and the Bible." 

6. "The Life and Times of John Brown." 

7. "An Evening with the Poets." 

I divide the proceeds of the lecture with the so- 
ciety under whose auspices I speak. I also supply 
pulpits, asking no compensation except the privi- 
lege of advertising my books. I have published sev- 
eral small works, the most successful of which have 
been a little volume of "Poems and Proverbs," a 
riddle book entitled "Nuts to Crack," and the pres- 
ent work. 

My readers often ask how I gather the material 
for my books and how I prepare them for the 
press. Some have even questioned whether my 
writings were my own work. So I will sky in a 
word, though I have had no eyes, I have had ears 
to hear, a tongue to ask, and a brain to think. I 
was born with a love of study. All my life I have 
striven to learn what I could, from books, from 
conversation, from public discourse, and from 
my own reflections. When I heard anything 
read or said that I thought was worth remem- 
bering I repeated it over and over to my- 
self till I could pin it down in my note book. 
When my friends read to me, I often ask them to 
pause, till I put down word for word, a choice senti- 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 9 

ment or an important fact. As to my mode of writ- 
ing, I write letters to my seeing friends with a lead 
pencil, laying my paper on a grooved pasteboard 
card which keeps the lines straight and parallel. 
But as these characters are not legible to me, I 
employ another system for my private purpose. I 
have an apparatus which in the schools for the blind 
is called a point slate. 

I need not describe it in full. Sufficient to say 
that its surface is covered with narrow grooves and 
ridges. On this I lay a heavy sheet of paper, and 
with a stylus I puncture the paper. Different com- 
binations of dots constitute the different characters. 
When I have filled the sheet, I turn it over and read 
the dots by the sense of touch. By this means I 
have accumulated hundreds of pages of valuable 
notes. And when I prepare a lecture or book, I cull 
from my casket of jewels whatever I wish to use 
for the piece of work in hand. Then I make my 
outline, writing, re-writing and re-arranging many 
times. But with my mode of writng, it is a slow and 
laborious process, and it makes a bulky bundle of 
manuscript. When it is completed, I read it to an 
amanuensis clause by clause. Thus he commits it 
to writing, and it is ready for the press. 

If you wish to know more about me, Come arid 
see me, or invite me to speak before your club, 
school or church, and I will finish my story. 



PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 



After preparing this little work for the press, 
I was reluctant to publish it, for I painfully felt that 
some of its ideas would be repugnant to its readers ; 
even to those that I am most anxious to please — 
my dearest friends. But I have put my life-blood 
into it. It embodies the most sober thought and the 
most earnest feelings I ever had. 

I have never had good health, and may not live 
long, so I offer this keepsake to my friends. If 
they think it absurd, I ask them for friendship's sake 
to keep it, and read it again in twenty years or in 
fifty years, and see whether their riper experience 
vindicates my views. Hoping that the book will do 
some good, I send it forth as my message to my fel- 
lowmen. 

Testimonials to the First Edition: 

"Hot shot! Hard blows! Hits the nail on the 
head ! Depicts Pharisees, sharks, and the stam- 
pede for money. " 

Chicago Tribune, July 14, 1897. 

'It holds the life-blood of a man who has 
nought and suffered/' 

Inter-Ocean, July. 17. 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 11 

Northwestern Christian Advocate (in sub- 
stance) : "A brave and inspiring book." July 28. 

"Hard hits at monopolies, sweat shops, and so- 
cial hypocrisy." 

Daily News, July 22. 

"Abounding in humor and entertaining stories. 
Sometimes severe, but it will make people reflect." 

Evanston Press. 

Since Franklin published his almanac perhaps 
no book has appeared more worthy of comparison 
with that masterpiece of practical sense." 

C. W. Pearson, 

Professor of English Literature in Northwestern 
University. 

"It meets the first demand of literary work. It 
is interesting. And the second demand — it is 
helpful." C. M. Stewart, 

Professor of Rhetoric in Garrett Biblical Insti- 
tute. 

"It is destined to do much good. Strong sense." 

J. H. Gray, 
Professor of Political Economy in Northwestern 
University. 

"It is full of wit and wisdom." 

Rev. F. M. Bristol, D.D. 



PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 



How different is the feeling with which I issue 
this second edition, from that which filled my mind 
when I published the first. Only a few months 
have passed since then, and I am urged to reprint 
the book. My fellow townsmen have bought six 
hundred copies, and it has gone to many states, and 
to foreign lands. I am grateful to my patrons and 
to the good Providence that is over my life. Sharp 
criticism the book has had, but on the whole it has 
been kindly received. And it is remarkable that 
while many readers have taken exception to some 
particular point, still rarely have two persons men- 
tioned the same objection. It would seem therefore 
that the defects are. more in the critics, than in the 
book. Otherwise there would be more agreement. 

On one point, however, a number of objectors 
have agreed. Many people shake their heads at 
"the socialistic tone" of the book. Yet most of 
those who think my plan impracticable, still say they 
wish it were possible. But I am doing my part to 
make it possible. With millions of others, I am 
throwing my pebble into the great deep of our social 
life, and we shall start a wave that will not cease to 
roll till it reaches the Utopian shore. Like the reve- 



1 



THE RULE OF GOLD. ^ 

lator. I behold in the bright future, the new earth 
wherein dwelleth righteousness. 

"For lo ! the days are hastening on 

By prophet bards foretold, 
When with the ever-circling years 

Comes round the age of Dgold ; 
When peace shall over all the earth 

It's final splendors fling 
And all the world send back the song 

Which now the angels sing." 

— Sears. 



CHAPTER I. 

WE ALI, BEUEVE IN THE GOLDEN RULE. 

As ye would that men should do unto you, 
do ye even so unto them." "How beautiful!" 
you exclaim. "That is what I believe !" But 
do you practice it? If not, why not? Can you 
practice it? Now if I can show that, in 
the first place, all men believe in the Golden 
Rule ; secondly, that they do not keep it ; third, why 
they do not keep it ; and, fourthly, that they can 
practice it, — then I shall have spoken to some pur- 
pose, and this is what I propose to do. 

My first proposition then, is : "We all believe in 
the Golden Rule. 

Every teacher, from Carl Marx, the king of so- 
cialists, to Jesus, the King of Saints, says, "Love one 
another," and Moses, fifteen hundred years before 
the time of Jesus, said, "Thou shalt love thy neigh- 
bor as thyself." 

The earliest monuments of Egypt, and the old- 
est documents of China, proclaim the law of charity. 
All the classic poets, from Homer to Horace, teach 
this lesson of love. Mohammed is accused of basing 
his religion on force, yet hear his dying words : "O, 
my people ! Love each other and do deeds of kind- 
ness, for only by these things do men prosper." 



16 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

But the great Nazarene put this truth into the 
most simple and beautiful form, for all men and all 
time, in the words, "As ye would that men should 
do unto you, do ye even so unto them." 

All civilized men have indorsed this sentiment 
as the highest wisdom by calling it the Golden Rule. 
Which proves our first proposition. 




CHAPTER II. 



BUT DO WE PRACTICE IT? 



Yes, in the family, in friendship, in neighborly 
kindness, men often keep and surpass the Golden 
Rule by rinding their greatest happiness in making 
others happy. And in society, etiquette consists in 
preferring the comfort of others to our own; in 
benevolence, what countless acts are done every day, 
in which men find their greatest pleasure in pro- 
moting the pleasure of others ! But what is com- 
monly called benevolence, the giving of alms and 
donations of money to good causes, is but a small 
part of the real benevolence of the world. 

The larger part occurs in connection with busi- 
ness. The goods that are sold every day on credit, 
and the loans that are given without security, when 
there is no prospect of any return. Many a lawyer 
gives valuable advice without charge, and many a 
doctor rises at night, and goes long distances in the 
storm, when he knows that the patient cannot, or 
will not pay him. And in trade, how often the 
seller takes less than the buyer offers ! 

A friend of mine, in the the early days of Wis- 
consin, sold a piece of land at two dollars an acre 
when the purchaser offered him three. I met a man 



18 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

from Nebraska who deserves to be put on record. 
A neigbor of his was discouraged with Western farm- 
ing, and offered him his homestead for two hundred 
dollars. The man gave him two hundred and fifty, 
and the seller returned to his Eastern home. A few 
years later he came back to Nebraska, and told his 
neighbor he would give him a thousand dollars for 
the old place. But he said, "I only want my two 
hundred and fifty, with the interest up to date." 

I know a man in Chicago, an Irish Catholic, who 
sold an old piano to a Methodist mission for twenty- 
five dollars, when he knew that they expected to pay 
fifty. This man was above three of our common 
weaknesses — the religious prejudice, which is rap- 
idly dying ; the race prejudice, which is slowly dy- 
ing; and the love of money, which is not dying at 
all, but in the opinion of many business men is 
growing stronger every day. 

Perhaps you hardly believe the instances I have 
given you. When I mention such facts to my 
friends, they are apt to say, "That's a likely story," 
which goes to show that the rule of business is not 
the Golden Rule, but rather the maxim, "Every man 
for himself." I need not bring an accusation against 
our business system, but only judge it out of its own 
mouth. Constantly we hear people say, "If I don't 
look out for myself, no one will look out for me ;" 
"Business is business ;" "We cannot mix sentiment 
with business;" "He is too honest to succeed in 
business ;" "Better not do business with intimate 
friends — you are liable to lose your money or your 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 19 

friend ;" "Political economy and morals do not go 
together." 

Socrates said, "Cursed be the man who first 
separated morals and business ;" but Walker's 
"Political Economy/' written in our own day and in 
our own land and studied in our Christian colleges, 
declares that political economy and morals have 
nothing to do with each other. Adam Smith says, 
"A prudent self-interest is all that is necessary as a 
basis for political economy. " And we often hear 
Christian men say, "You can't be a Christian and 
do business as it is done." 

Such a system of business convicts itself. No 
wonder when men go to church they pray that they 
may forget the world and all the affairs of the past 
week. But that is not the Bible idea. "When thou- 
comest to the altar with thy gift, and there remem- 
berest that thy brother hath aught against thee, go, 
first be reconciled to thy brother, then come and 
offer thy gift." 

"To what purpose is the multitude of your sac- 
rifices, your Sabbaths, and your solemn assembly? 
My soul hateth them. When ye offer many prayers, 
I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. Re- 
lieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for 
the widow." "Ye swallow widow's houses, and for 
a pretense make long prayers." 

And these Pharisees are not dead yet. I can 
give you the names of prominent real-estate men 
and Church men of Chicago and Evanston who 
have basely defrauded widows ; and I can show you 



20 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

a merchant in Evanston who charged .a poor widow 
at the rate of 140 per cent interest, if reckoned by 
the year, for a short loan he gave her. When he 
found she could not pay it, he took 80 per cent, and 
told me he did it out of pity. 

I can mention a leading lawyer in Chicago who, 
in connection with another lawyer, settled up a 
small estate for a widow in Bloomington, and their 
bills came to more than the value of the property. 

Yet we are continually told how gallant these 
gentlemen are to the ladies, because they will give 
them their seat in a car, or carry a parcel for them. 
But how do they stand up for them, or carry their 
burdens, when it comes to business? 

I know a wealthy farmer who told a very poor 
widow, after she had done several washings at his 
house, that she might go into his woods, three 
miles distant, and pick up chips for her pay. I 
know a trader who gave a woman ten dollars for an 
organ, and sold it for thirty-five. And he is called 
one of the most spiritual men in the Churdi to 
which he belongs. But if he gave five dollars 
of the profit to the church and one dollar to the 
Associated Charities, of course he was a good man. 
Charity covers a multitude of sins. You may say 
I ought not to state such facts, for I might injure 
the cause of religion ; but the more such religion 
is injured, the better. You remind me of pious 
Sambo, the exhorter, who was asked by his master 
to talk to the brethren next Sunday about chicken- 
stealing, and Sambo replied, "Couldn't do that, 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 21 

massa. It would bring a coolness over the meetin'." 
The Bible declares that judgment must begin 
at the house of God ; and there we certainly meet 
with some startling facts. The Pope, the head of 
the largest branch of the Church, during a recent 
year, it is said, had an income of two and a half mil- 
lions, and many of his fellow-members do not have 
the necessaries of life. But it is encouraging that 
the present pope takes an earnest and practical inter- 
est in the cause of the people. 

I was present at a meeeting in Topeka, Kansas, 
in which a ten-thousand dollar residence was given 
to Bishop Ninde as his home, and the debt was sad- 
dled on the Methodist people of Kansas, when many 
of them lived in sod-houses and dugouts. But to 
the honor of Bishop Ninde be it said, when he found 
how hard it was for the people to lift the debt, he 
voluntarily paid rent for the use of the house. And 
I am satisfied that his wife, in case of her husband's 
death, would not want the Church to support her in 
idleness on account of being the widow of a bishop. 
A noted D. D. in a recent speech said : "Here 
is a brakeman, in snow and ice, working for fifty 
cents a day. And here is the railroad president, sit- 
ting in his drawing-room till 10 A. M., then putting 
off his slippers and drawing on his boots, going to 
the office to dictate a few letters, then back to his 
drawing-room, for $25,000 a year. And the brake- 
man thinks there is something wrong about it. 
"But," exclaimed the D. D., holding up his hand, 
"I say it's right! By heaven it's right." 



22 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

What wonder that workingmen are prejudiced 
against this gospel, that might makes right ! I have 
heard Bishop Foster say, "I think we are to blame 
for the ill-feeling between the Church and the peo- 
ple." 

The secretary of the Y. M. C. A. at M , Wis., 

has a salary of $75 a month, while the janitor re- 
ceives $13. He tells the janitor that the society 
cannot afford to pay him one dollar more ; yet he is 
doing his utmost to have his own salary raised to 
$100 a month. 

When I speak of these things to ministers, they 
usually reply, "He gained his wealth by his ability." 
That is, the lion must have the lion's share, because 
he is the lion. The big dog has a right to the bone, 
if he can take it from the little dog. Napoleon has 
a right to be master of Europe, if he can make him- 
self master. But the kings of Europe said, "No ! 
we will maintain the balance of power." And are 
not Gould and Pullman Napoleons of the financial 
world? You may want to say that I would do the 
same thing if I could. What a testimony is that to 
the greed and grip of the present system ! 

And we are Christians ! Followers of Him who 
said, "He that would be greatest among you, let him 
be servant of all" The great apostle thus summed 
up the gospel : "I have taught you all things, how 
that, so laboring, ye ought to help the weak, and re- 
member the words of the Lord Jesus, that it is more 
blessed to give than to receive." 

How many Christians think it more blessed to 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 



23 



give than to receive ? Too many prefer the modern 
version of the old Catechism : "What is the chief . 
end of man? To keep all he's got, and get all he 
can." 

Look at the emblems of the Christian nations — 
the lion, the bear, and the eagle. The Board of 
Trade declares itself to be a den of wild beasts, for it 
calls its members bulls and bears. 

But it is not simply a case of the lion's strength, 
but also of the fox's cunning. For these gentlemen 
believe in the rogue's maxim, "If the lion's skin is 
not long enough, sew on the fox's." Here is one 
fox who buys all the goods he can on credit, then 
sells them rapidly at cost, and absconds with the 
money ; but he got it by his ability. 

A knot of young men were sitting in a coun- 
try store, discussing the successful men of the town- 
ship, and one exclaimed : "There is old Jenkins ; he 
came here thirty years ago, bought an ax on trust, 
and began to make a clearing, and see where he is 
now." "Yes," said the old merchant, "he has not 
paid for that ax yet." 

Another fox who is well otn in the race cuts 
prices to crush out small concerns, and when he has 
the monopoly he makes his own prices. 

Mr. Armour sells pork and Mr. Washburn sells 
flour for less in England than here, because they 
have the monopoly here, but hot there. 

Commission men combine with railroads, so that 
it is difficult and sometimes impossible for a farmer 
to send produce to a private dealer or a friend in the 



24 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

city. The commission men want a percentage on all 
goods that come into the city ; if they are not con- 
signed to them, they are often delayed for many 
days, if not entirely lost. Boomers run property up 
to the buyer, and run it down to the seller, and so 
make a double profit. As a certain wit has said, "It 
is easy to get rich ; you have only to take a 6, turn 
it upside down, and make a 9 of it." 

Another fox buys a tract of land near a city, plats 
it into lots, begins to build a factory in order to sell 
the lots. Sells off the lots and the factory stock, and 
walks off with his pile. The factory is never built. 

A syndicate buys millions of acres of State land 
at a trifling price, sells it by the acre, receiving what 
cash pay they can, and taking mortgages for the 
balance, at a high rate of interest. When the time 
expires, and the mortgages are not paid, they bid it 
in themselves at less than they received for it. 

A banker will speculate or gamble with other 
people's money, and when he loses it, or says he has 
lost it, he is called unfortunate ; but when a clerk in a 
store takes money from the drawer for a gambling 
game, expecting to replace it, but loses it instead, he 
is called a thief. Where is the difference ? The dif- 
ference is this : The banker is likely to fail rich, the 
clerk fails poor. The banker had more ability than 
he. J. I. C. of Racine, will tell his men at Christmas 
that he must shut down two weeks for repairs ; when 
the men return at the end of two weeks, he says we 
need two weeks more, then a month; so he keeps 



THE RULE OF GOLD.' 25 

them in suspense, that in the spring they will all be 
on hand for work, and at his own price. 

One unscrupulous fox adulterates coal-oil to in- 
crease his profit, though he makes it so explosive 
that hundreds of people are liable to lose their 
homes and their lives. Or he puts up a public build- 
ing, and makes it so shoddy that it falls down the 
first time that it is packed with an audience. 

Another fox goes to all the grain buyers before 
harvest, and engages to sell them grain at a certain 
price after harvest. In the fall the farmers come to 
the buyers with their grain. But they all say, "We 
are going to buy of Mr. A.;" so the farmers are 
obliged to sell to Mr. A. at such a price as he 
chooses to give. The German fable tells of Bishop 
Hatto, who shut up all the grain in his barns, and 
would not sell it to the people at any price that they 
could pay; he called them hungry rats, and drove 
them away. And the story concludes that a swarm 
of rats overwhelmed and devoured him. We have 
many Hattos among us. They escape the rats, but 
they do not escape the contempt of the people. The 
wise man said : "He that withholdeth corn, the peo- 
ple shall curse him ; but blessing shall be upon the 
head of him that selleth it." So when you hear the 
people curse such men, remember that they are ful- 
filling Scripture; but lest you should think me ex- 
treme, I will say a word on the other side. 

Some of the members of the Farmers' Alliance 
have proposed to build a warehouse, wdiere they 
can keep their grain till it doubled in price. In their 



26 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

meetings they often say, "We have been the tinder 
dog long enough; we want to be on top awhile." 

A stranger walked into a clothing store, and 
priced a pair of pants ; the price was four dollars ; 
but the Jew said seven, so that he could afford to 
come down ; but the stranger promptly paid the 
seven. The Jew, instead of being well satisfied, 
muttered to himself, "I wish 1 had said ten." 

An Irish girl said to a clerk, "How much for this 
• ribbon?" "Fifteen cents.'' "Fifty cents? I'll give 
you forty." "I said fifteen cents." ''Fifteen? I'll 
give you tin." You see the poor can be unjust, as 
well as the rich. Somebody said to a carpenter \^ 
little boy : "When will your father be through with 
that job he is on?" "O," said the boy, "if he gets 
another job, he will be through in two or three days ; 
but if he don't get any, it will take him a week." 

I said to a friend of mine, who employed half a 
dozen men, and who was railing against capitalists : 
"Your men look upon you just as you do at the 
greater capitalists." 

Many rich men are more kind and thoughtful 
toward the poor than the poor are toward each 
other. In the parable, we read how a certain lord 
forgave his servant a debt of ten thousand talents 
because he could not pay it ; then that servant went 
out and met a fellow -servant who owed him 
a hundred pence. He took him by the throat, and 
said, "Pay that thou owest me." 

Some of my richest neighbors have done menial 
service for me which some of my poorest neighbors 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 27 

would have been too proud to do. But if the poor 
are sometimes coarse and rude, for that very rea- 
son they should not be trampled deeper into the dirt, 
but be lifted up by those that are above them. "We 
that are strong should bear the infirmities of them 
that are weak/' The strong should help them, in- 
stead of combining against them. This must not 
become a Government of the rich and for the rich, 
but always be a Government of the people for the 
people. A labor club in Milwaukee engaged a 
quantity of coal at the mines on the Mississippi, and 
then the railroad would not bring it to them. So the 
strong help the strong. 

The papers have just given us an item which 
shows us how ingenious these city foxes sometimes 
are. A company of gentlemen in Chicago offered to 
make cheaper gas for the city, and they obtained a 
charter for this purpose ; then the existing gas com- 
pany gave them some thousands of dollars to sur- 
render their charter. It has since come to light that 
they never intended to make gas, and had no money 
for the enterprise. They only wanted to make a lit- 
tle out of the gas company. Their talk was all the 
gas they could make, but they coined it into money. 
What miraculous ability ! Many a railroad has 
watered it stock, and sold twice as much stock as it 
is worth. Half the stockholders lost their money, 
and the other half doubled theirs by their ability. 

Mr. Yerkes has used city property without rent 
or interest ; and yet we think it preposterous when 
poor men think that the Government ought to loan 



28 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

money at low interest. I know a blind broom- 
maker in Chicago, who sometimes sells brooms in 
the city hall, and they often keep him waiting many 
months for his pay. The politicians are getting in- 
terest on that money, and on the thousands of dol- 
lars that are kept back in the same way. But when 
that broom-maker's taxes are due he must pay them, 
or pay a penalty for six months. If they are not 
paid then, they are sold, and sold by the men who 
do not pay their own taxes. 

Mr. Stead ascertained that fifty-five of the Chi- 
cago aldermen paid no taxes, and the other thirteen 
together paid only $1,500 on all their valuable prop- 
erty. 

Here we strike one of the causes that make the 
rich grow richer and the poor poorer. The poof 
pay ten and in some cases twenty times as much tax 
in proportion to the value of their property as the 
rich. It is no secret in Chicago and suburbs that 
one can have his tax reduced almost any amount if 
he will give the assessor half the reduction. It is 
stated that the farmers of the United States own 20 
per cent of the property, and pay 80 per cent of the 
taxes. What wonder that most of the Western 
farms are mortgaged ! And these mortgages are 
also taxed, so the nominal owner pays a double tax. 

It is said that cyclones blow away so few houses 
in Kansas because they are held down by heavy 
mortgages. 

But the farmers are waking up. A farmer 
dreamed that he went to the lower regions, and his 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 



29 



Satanic majesty showed him all his dungeons ; he 
saw in them men of every calling except farmers ; at 
last the old fellow opened a drying-room, and there 
were all the farmers hanging by their heels. "How is 
this?" said the guest. "Why, they were so green 
that I had to dry them." But they are fast outgrow- 
ing their greeness. 

But the indirect taxes which are the result of 
tariff make a still greater difference between the 
rich and the poor. 

Mr. Shearman, in an article in the Forum, says : 
"Our taxes, direct and indirect, amount to $1,400,- 
000,000, of which $1,300,000,000 is paid by the mid- 
dle and poorer classes." This helps to sink them 
lower, while it enables the fortunes of the favored 
few to rise. 

So it has come to pass that twenty-five thousand 
men own half the wealth of the country, and three 
hundred thousand own two-thirds. In France, be- 
fore the Revolution, the priests and nobles owned 
two-thirds of the land, while the millions of people 
who owned the other third paid all the taxes. The 
resemblance is startling; it is also ominous that we 
have a revival of Louis XIV fashions, and fashions 
of Madame Pompadour, the mistress of Louis XV. 
Or, would you rather hear about the American Rev- 
olution? What caused that? The Colonies had to 
sell all their produce to England, and buy all manu- 
factured goods from England. So to-day the farm- 
ers of the Northwest must sell their grain to the 
members of the elevator combination, buy their har- 



30 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

vesters of the harvest trust, and their twine of the 
cordage trust. The iron puddlers and steel workers 
must work for the iron and steel rings; the coal- 
miners for the coal pool, and they must buy their 
tools, their meat, and oil at their employers' stores. 
They are often paid in checks on these stores. So 
America, too, has her serfs. In many cases a part of 
their wages is kept back, so that they cannot quit or 
strike. Thus the bosses have them in their power, 
and at their own price. 

In New Mexico there is a custom called the 
Peune, according to which the laboring man can 
borrow money, by binding himself to work it out. 
But the wages are so low and the interests so high, 
he often finds that the longer he works the more he 
owes. 

It is claimed by those who ought to know, that 
there is a greater difference between the richest and 
the poorest in America than in Europe. No king 
has so large an income as some of our money kings 
have, and where in Europe will you find lower wages 
than in our sweat-shops, in which women sometimes 
do not earn over three dollars a month? There is 
more child-labor in Illinois, and more severe child- 
labor, than in some of the countries of Europe. 
I have heard Mrs. Kelley tell how our glass-blowers 
are allowed to gather children from almhouses, and 
work them to death. They have to run back and 
forth from one part of the shop, where the tempera- 
ture is about zero, to another part where it is 130 
above zero, then out in the cold thinly clad. She 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 31 

added, "The mortality among these children is 
frightful" 

In these sweat-shops shirts have been made for 
seven cents, children's knee pants for two and one- 
half cents, and fine cloaks for ninety cents. For- 
merly the same cloaks were made for three dollars 
and fifty cents. Some of the beautiful garments that 
you see in Marshall Field's store came from these 
shops, so there is another Field Museum beside the 
one in the Fair Ground. It is the sweat-shop, rilled 
with the wrecks of humanity, and this museum fur- 
nished the money for the other, which is rilled with 
the triumphs of art. It calls to mind the museum 
at Hesse Castle about which travellers rave, filled 
as it is with the world of wonders and surrounded 
by flower gardens, fountains, grottoes and statues. 
How was it paid for? The Elector sold his sub- 
jects to George III. of England, to be slaughtered 
in the American Revolution. He received twelve 
million dollars, with which he adorned his grounds. 
He was a public benefactor. And we have such 
benefactors, and we honor them in America to-day. 
The Roman Catholic catechism puts the oppression 
of the poor in the same category with wilful mur- 
der. As we look into these shops, and see the 
wretched women, our ears ring w T ith that saddest 
of songs, — 

"O men with sisters dear, 

O men with mothers and wives, 
It is not linen you're wearing out, 

But human creatures' lives. 
O God, that bread should be so dear, 

And flesh and blood so cheap." 



•32 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

Talk about murderers ! There is more than one 
way of committing murder. 

Shakespeare says : "You take my life when you 
do take the means by which I live/' 

You say Hood's song refers to England ; but I 
do not know of any suffering in Europe that I can- 
not parallel here. I have heard Dr. Hillis tell a pa- 
thetic story of a woman in England who could not 
write to her distant daughter because she could not 
buy a stamp ; but I know a man in Kansas, an in- 
dustrious, sober man, who could not write to his 
brother for a long period because he did not have 
a cent for a postal-card. Get up early some morn- 
ing, and go through the alleys of Chicago in the 
best residence portion, and see poor wretches dig- 
ging in the garbage boxes, righting with each other 
and with dogs over stale bread and bones. Little 
do the sleepers in the mansion dream of what is go- 
ing on at their back door. Truly, one-half the 
world does not know how the other half lives. What 
does the palace know about the hovel ? What does 
up-town know about down-town, where ten thou- 
sand people are crowded together into a single acre, 
living in damp, dark, dilapidated tenements, cold in 
winter and suffocating in summer, often foul with 
vermin and stench ; not that these people are always 
untidy, but because some landlords will not make 
the most necessary repairs, even when it is a matter 
of cleanliness and health ? 

The death-rate in these quarters is often five 
times as great as in other parts of the city. Such 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 33 

homes breed disease, despair, vice, and crime. A 
benevolent committee in New York found fifty fam- 
ilies who had been without food and fire forty-eight 
hours. Some of these poeple, who have more fuel 
than bedding, sit up all night to keep warm ; others 
who have more bedding than fuel, stay in bed all 
day. I have known a mother to tie up her baby's 
hands in rags, so that they might not freeze in case 
it got them out from under the cover. One 
woman pays $5,000 for a rug, and another does not 
have a decent rag for her baby to sit on. Sarah 
Bernhardt, in going from London to Paris, re- 
quired forty-eight trunks ; another woman does not 
need one trunk, because she has no extra dress to 
put in it. 

At the opening of the Auditorium, when Patti 
sailed out upon the stage, she drew four yards of 
trail behind her, and the spectators applauded as if 
she were a comet. But when President Harrison, 
on the same occasion, stepped upon the platform, 
if he had dragged twelve feet of coat-tail on the 
floor, they would have thought he had gone crazy. 
If Madam Patti, instead of covering the floor with 
her superfluous cloth, would cover another woman's 
back, both women would be more comfortable. In- 
deed, the price of the costly goods, glittering with 
countless gems, would clothe a thousand women. 

So little do some people know about the way 
that other people live that one of the Evanston pro- 
fessors recently remarked to me, "I am all tired out, 
because I have just returned from a Western Con- 



34 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

ference, and had to lodge in a sleeping-car three 
nights." I said to myself: "Old gentleman, if you 
had traveled three nights without being in a sleep- 
ing-car, then you might talk." And I thought of an 
old lady in Milwaukee, broken down with hard 
work and many sorrows, who went to California and 
took no sleeper, but sat in her seat five days and five 
nights. 

Being blind myself, I know of many blind men 
who sit in depots or police stations night after night, 
then tramp all day with a peddler's pack. While 
blind men cannot earn half as much as other men, 
they have the same wants, and therefore the same 
expenses, and in some respects more, for they meet 
with many accidents, and must often employ a 
guide. While others ride on street-cars, they often 
grope their way for miles for the want of a fare ; or if 
they ride and have a child with them as guide, they 
must pay an extra fare. And when they appeal to 
the city fathers to send food to their families, they 
often send the worst, and charge it up to the city as 
the best. I know of cases where they have sent 
provisions that could not be used, but I grant that 
the unfortunate are often treated generously and 
royally by the public and private parties. These, 
however, are acts of charity ; but our economic sys- 
tem, as such, is against the weak ; it cannot adjust 
itself to them. 

At Portage, Wisconsin, there is a man who is 
entirely blind and totally deaf, yet he has struggled 
for years to support himself by making hammocks 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 35 

and bead-work ; but he cannot compete with seeing 
workmen, and cannot dispose of his goods without 
hired help. He has written me the most pitiful let- 
ters about the dilapidated house in which he lives. 
It does not keep out the rain in summer, or the wind 
in winter. Yet he must battle for life in the market 
with ablebodied men. There is no alternative ex- 
cept the wretchedly kept poor-hous&. 

Another blind man, who lost his hearing, went 
to a specialist to be examined ; but he would not 
look at him without ten dollars in advance. So the 
man was obliged to go as he came. 

There are many thousands, perhaps two hun- 
dred thousand, feeble-minded children and idiots of 
all ages in the United States, for whom no special 
provision is made. There are a few schools for their 
benefit, like the noble institution at Fort Wayne, 
Indiana, which is one of the highest watermarks of 
our civilization ; but most of these poor creatures are 
neglected, and w r e pay a fearful penalty in the crim- 
inals and paupers that spring from this class. It is 
horrible to think that they are even allowed to multi- 
ply through marriage and prostitution.. What an 
illustration is this of the selfishness and stupidity of 
our political system ! 

Thousands of people are carrying tumors which 
are growing larger every day, because they cannot 
pay for an operation. Amid all this injustice and 
selfishness, where are the followers of Him who was 
the Friend of the poor and the sick ? When we talk 
about these things in the pulpit, they say : "He is 



36 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

not preaching the gospel. He is a mere human- 
tarian." 

When I was in Boston ,1 learned that the Chris- 
tian Union was dropped by the orthodox Churches 
because it devoted itself exclusively to acts of hu- 
manity, instead of holding devotional meetings. I 
was reminded of the colored brother who did not 
like his new pastor because he was not spiritual. 
The first Sunday he had preached on the text, 
"Thou shalt not steal ;" the next Sunday, "Let him 
that stole steal no more ;" the third, "Provide things 
honest in the sight of all men." Then the spiritual 
brother arose and said this thing must be stopped. 
"This church am dedificated to ligion, not politics. " 
Yes, they want the preacher to keep out of politics, 
yet when the stewards make the round of the town 
with a subscription paper, they go to all the officials 
and say, "You must each give us five dollars, be- 
cause we voted for you, and you will want our votes 
again." 

And how about the political parties who are 
pledged to the administration of justice? They love 
the dear people before the election, and are generous 
on election days. They buy votes openly at the 
polls. At the election of a recent governor of New 
York, his sister spent two hundred and forty thou- 
sand dollars, to say nothing of all the campaign 
funds. And what sympathy the office-seeker ex- 
presses for the poor people! what promises he 
makes! and the confiding people believe him, and 
are led as sheep to the slaughter. They learn too 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 37 

late that the politician loved the fleece more than 
the flock. Or, as Mr. Spurgeon puts it, "It is sim- 
ply a question of which set of maggots shall have 
the cheese. " And the members of the Legislature, 
instead of voting on bills according to their merits, 
trade off votes with each other, in order to have 
their own bills passed, and so be in favor with their 
constituents. 

As to the injustice of private lawyers, I need not 
speak. Their proverbial dishonesty is condemna- 
tion enough. Yet I would not be unjust even in 
speaking of an unjust class. Let us remember that 
the very men of whom we are the proudest, the men 
who are the glory of the Nation — Washington, 
Franklin, Jefferson, Lincoln, Sumner, and Garfield 
— were lawyers or politicians. And among the 
young men of my acquaintance, in the various pro- 
fessions, my legal friends have been as just and as 
kind to me as other men. Still, when we commit 
the cause of justice to them, we must look to them 
for it, and how often they are not only unjust, but 
inhuman ! 

A blind girl in Milwaukee, who has been ped- 
dling about the city, one day was passing a building 
where some workmen had removed a step. She fell 
and broke her ankle. She sued the contractor. Her 
lawyer was glad to have such a case. How he could 
plead for the poor girl who was trying to make a liv- 
ing under great disadvantages ! Justice and pity 
demanded that she should be well indemnified. The 
court granted her four hundred dollars, and then 



38 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

the pitying lawyer took a hundred and sixty dollars 
for his plea. 

The lawyer makes it his business to clear the 
criminal, not to bring him to justice ; but the client 
is also to blame. He pays the lawyer to clear him, 
not to do him justice, and offers to pay twice as 
much if he is acquitted. So the lawyer studies to 
evade the law, rather than to apply it. If he cannot 
do that, he endeavors to put off the trial. If that is 
impossible, the papers are lost or the jury is bribed. 

Is it not a common saying, "that you cannot 
have justice unless you have money ?" You may re- 
ply, "You can't have anything without money." But 
when we pay our taxes we pay for protection. Then 
why can we not have it without paying fees to pri- 
vate lawyers, and even to public officials ? My satchel 
was stolen from me at Woodstock, and the sheriff 
told me he did not have to do anything about it 
without a fee, and I have paid taxes for twenty-five 
years. A jeweler in Chicago was robbed by one of 
his employees of several diamonds. He gave the 
matter into the hands of the police. When he went 
to see them a few days later, they had quite forgotten 
about it. He said, "I've paid heavy taxes for years, 
and now when I want a little service I can't get it." 
A. quantity of cigars were stolen from a little store 
on West Lake Street. The police recovered the 
goods, and took them to the Desplaines Street Sta- 
tion, but when the proprietor called for them, most 
of the cigars had been smoked at the station ; and 
there is a good deal of smoke about the protection 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 39 

of our property. As I sat in a friend's house in Chi- 
cago, a banana man came in. The family were look- 
ing at his fruit, when somebody came to the door 
and said, "The boys are running off with your ba- 
nanas." He rushed out, but the boys and the 
bananas were gone. I said to the gentleman of the 
house, "Can't we find the parents of the boys and 
the police, and see that this man has his fruit again 
or his pay?" and he said, "O, you can't do anything 
about a matter of that kind." Even the boys knew 
that there was no law for a banana man. 

In the days of old Rome, a man had but to say, 
'Tm a Roman," to be protected ; does it mean noth- 
ing to say, "I'm an American?" We accuse the for- 
eigners of not respecting our Government. But 
does it always deserve their respect? I met a Ger- 
man boy in Chicago who took care of a lawyer's 
office. He worked for six months without receiving 
any of his promised pay. He had asked for it re- 
peatedly. One day, as he was arranging the office, 
he found two purses, one containing two thousand 
dollars, and the other ninety-five dollars. He took 
a few dollars out of the smaller purse, but he did 
not leave the place, as he felt justified in the act. 
The lawyer sent him to Joliet for a year. The law- 
yers that the lad consulted, said, "You have a good 
case if you have money;" but he had none, so he 
went to State's prison, while his employer sat on the 
bench in the Supreme Court of Illinois. 

A lady in New York accused her washer-woman 
of stealing a watch that was missing, and she was 



40 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

thrown into prison. The watch was soon found, but 
the lady did not trouble herself to make it known 
to the court. The woman was in her dungeon for 
two months before it was discovered that she was 
innocent. The lady merely said she did not know 
that the woman was still in prison. 

Is it any wonder that such people become anar- 
chists? There is a reason even for unreasonable 
things. When the law will not protect men, they 
will not respect the law. Bad government is the 
worst anarchy and rebellion against it, is the truest 
loyalty. We did not blame the crusade women for 
going to the saloons with hatchets, and chopping 
open the barrels. We do not blame a child for strik- 
ing at a cruel parent. I hate a mob as I hate the 
small-pox ; but they are both the outbreaking virus 
of a polluted system. Franklin wittily said, "A 
mob has many heads and no brains I" But if the 
child is an idiot, there was something wrong with 
his parents. The French Revolution was the fierc- 
est mob that ever broke loose upon this world, be- 
cause it sprang from the foulest disease. The na- 
tion cured the disease by purifying the blood of the 
body politic. So the great mob taught a great les- 
son. Carlyle called it the greatest event of a thou- 
sand years, and Victor Hugo declares that it was the 
greatest event since the birth of Christ. So the 
French Revolution might be called the French Rev- 
elation. It burst forth like a volcano, and buried the 
nation in ruins. It shook down thrones, temples, 
and homes. It obliterated the most ancient land- 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 41 

marks of law and morals, but it was Mount Sinai, 
thundering into the ears of kings and priests: "Thou 
shalt not steal. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not 
covet, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." 
Charles Dickens says in substance : "In the rumble 
of the death cart was heard the roll of a hundred 
princely chariots. In the burning palace were seen 
the flames that had consumed ten thousand cot- 
tages ; the plunder and the rapine repaid the plun- 
der and the rapine of feudal despots. In the lan- 
guage of Scripture, they had sowed the wind, and 
they reaped the whirlwind; but amid the storm 
and the fire and the earthquake was heard the still 
small voice, saying, 'Liberty, Equality, Fraternity/ " 
The world heard the Divine voice, and learned its 
lesson ; so we say with Tennyson : 

4 'And all is well, though faith and form 
Are sundered in the night of fear ; 
Well roars the storm to them that hear 

A deeper voice across the storm." 

It broke the power of kings, and established the 
rights of the people. All that we mean to-day by 
citizenship is the fruit of the French Revolution. 

You may say : "What has all that to do with this 
country? There is a chance here for every man to 
make a good living ; if he does not make it, it is due 
to his laziness or vice." What about the class to 
which I belong? The thousands of blind men who 
often, in spite of energy and virtue, are without food 
and shelter; and the larger class of working girls 
who earn barely enough to pay the rent of a poor 



42 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

room and to board themselves on short rations, and 
who walk for miles to and from their work to save 
street-car fares ; and the widows who work all day 
to support their children, and work half the night 
to do their baking, washing, and mending, and who 
are often obliged, when they leave the house, to give 
opiates to their babies, so that they will sleep till the 
mother returns, — are these poor creatures poor be- 
cause of their idleness and vice? Is it the whisky 
they drink, and the tobacco they smoke, that keeps 
them down? And there are hosts of industrious, 
steady men who cannot make ends meet. At Rock- 
ford, I called with a Methodist minister on one of 
his poor parishioners, a hard-working, sober Swede. 
He told me that he had worked for years for the 
Northwestern Railroad, and that his wages of a 
dollar and a quarter a day were not enough for the 
support of his family, including rent and school and 
Church. 

I know a man in Chicago, a member of Moody's 
Church, a most industrious man, who, a few months 
ago, was so pressed by the wants of his family that 
he sold some articles from the house at second-hand 
price. One day he sold a copy of Shakespeare and 
eight volumes of commentary on the Bible for one 
dollar. 

Gentlemen, it is not a matter of morals, but a 
matter of figures. Multitudes of men receive only a 
dollar a day, and are often out of employment, earn- 
ing less than three hundred dollars a year. Of 
course, many do much better, so we will call it an 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 



43 



average of four hundred; but who can support a 
family in the city on four hundred dollars a year? 
A preacher of the Rock River Conference would 
not accept his appointment because it paid only 
eight hundred dollars. He said : "I am loyal to the 
Church, but I would be slaying my family to go to 
such a charge/' And with the perquisites and fav- 
ors that ministers receive, his income would have 
been a thousand or more ; yet that would be death 
to his family. The year before, when he had a 
larger salary, I heard him say "that the sufferings of 
the poor were due to intemperance ;" and I heard 
him thank God in public prayer for the hanging of 
the anarchists ; but when his income dropped to a 
thousand dollars, he rebelled against society and the 
Church. I have heard more than one minister or 
members of his family say "that a thousand dollars 
a year was the least they could live on ;" but when 
they hear a workingman complain of four hundred, 
they break into a tirade against anarchy and vice. 
A few years ago the leading preacher of the 
Rock River Conference was making the annual plea 
at Lake Bluff for a large collection. He said, 
among other things, "The chairman has not 
received what he ought to have for his service." 
Then he exclaimed, "I would not do what Dr. 
Marsh has done for $500." Think of it, my read- 
ers. A Christian minister would not sit in the 
shade at a summer resort for two weeks, presiding 
at a Christian assembly, for $500. But a laboring 
man must sweat and freeze twelve months for less 



44 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

than $500 and if he says there is something wrong 
about it, he is denounced as an anarchist or a 
drunkard. 

Well, anarchy and vice ought to be denounced ; 
but why not preach against the vices of the mas- 
ter, as well as the vices of the servant? If a poor 
man drinks beer and chews tobacco, it is all wrong ; 
but if his employer drinks champagne and smokes 
cigars, it is all right, to say nothing of more expen- 
sive follies, — trotting horses, hunting trips, and 
club-houses. And then they will solemnly say to us, 
"We could not pay our hands a penny more this 
year, because we have just made expenses." They 
are as kind as the man who was lost in the desert 
with his dog. When man and dog were starving, 
he cut off the dog's chubby tail, and gnawed the 
flesh from it. Then he threw the bone to the dog. But 
the dog licked his master's hand and thought it was 
all right. O what hounds some employers are, and 
what puppies some employees are. But I have said 
enough on this point, our enemies themselves be- 
ing judges. Mr. Depew, the toastmaster of the 
Vanderbilts, has said, "The workingman has a 
grievance." The common use of the word boodle 
and the current jokes about city fathers confirm 
what I have said about officials. The word pool as 
applied to combinations implies that they play a 
gambling game. And does not everybody say that 
the Golden Rule of Chicago is, "Do others or they 
will do you ?" It is clear, then, that in business and 
government, we do not go by the Golden Rule. 



CHAPTER III. 

WHY NOT ? 

You say, because men are selfish ; but we have 
seen that in their private relations they are cour- 
teous and kind. So the fault must be in the busi- 
ness, rather than the man. You ask, "How can I 
separate the business from the man?" It is the 
difference between self-love and selfishness. Self- 
love is natural and right. Selfishness is acquired 
and wrong. Self-love prompts to self-preservation. 
The body was man's first teacher. He needed food, 
clothing, and shelter. Then love led him to provide 
for his mate and children. Then experience taught 
him to make provision for old age, and for his fam- 
ily after his death. As his fear and anxiety on ac- 
count of his family and old age grew stronger and 
stronger, he grew more and more eager to accumu- 
late property, until in many cases he came to have 
a mania for property itself, aside from its uses ; and 
when money became the medium of exchange, he 
began to accumulate money; then to hoard it and 
to love it for its own sake. This led to the piling 
up of property, the lust for money, and, at last, to 
competition. A war between man and man fcir 
wealth, and the strong found it to their interest to 
combine against the weak. Thus business became 



46 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

organized selfishness. A struggle and scramble for 
gold, a war for plunder. The age of military war 
as a business is passed. It is now a commercial war. 
It is not so bloody, but not less deadly ,destroying 
millions in body and soul. Slavery is gone, but 
Horace Greeley said: "The slavery of capital, 
though more refined, is not less cruel than chattel 
slavery." Indeed, the life of the day laborer is one- 
third less than that of the serf. But we needn't go 
back to Horace Greeley for these facts. We meet 
them to-day on every hand. I recently visited a 
suburb where one of the Chicago packers was put- 
ting up ice. He imported a gang of two hundred 
men from the city. They were scantily clothed, and 
some almost barefoot. They worked from daylight 
till dark, seven days in the week in ice and freezing 
water, often falling into the water, and often injured 
by the falling ice or by the machinery. The quar- 
ters in which they slept did not always keep the 
snow out of the beds. For sleeping and eating in 
this barrack they were charged four dollars a week, 
and the wages of the common laborers were a dollar 
and a quarter a day, which left them less than five 
dollars for their clothing and their families. 
Slavery is not yet abolished. And look at our 
Negroes who spent fifty years in slavery, strong and 
rugged still — eighty, ninety, and sometimes over a 
hundred years old. They were never worked as 
hard as our laborers are, and did not wear out their 
lives in worrying about the future support of their 
families. Whatever the times or the weather might 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 47 

be, their living was sure. The Incas of Peru did not 
keep their laborers long at heavy or dangerous 
work in the quarries, mines, or marshes, but relieved 
them from time to time with other gangs. We are 
not as thoughtful and humane as the stupid and 
cruel Indian was. 

The commercial warrior builds cities as his fort- 
resses and magazines. Cities are centers of civiliza- 
tion ; but when they become too large, they are cen- 
ters of cruelty and crime. Horace Walpole, luxuri- 
ous earl though he was, said : "A great metropolis 
is as heartless as marble." Mrs. Ward, in "Robert 
Elsmere," exclaims : "London ! with its heartless 
wealth and its unfathomable poverty !" We read in 
Scr ipture that the first murderer built the first city, 
and the Cains of to-day seek the city, and do not 
spare their brothers, not even their natural 
brothers, for we often see them beat their 
own brothers and mothers in a trade. If you think 
me extreme, I ask, what do you mean by speaking 
of the almighty dollar ? The ministers of the gospel, 
who are supposed to worship the Almighty above, 
often think more about their salary than their souls 
or the souls of others ; and like the priest of old, they 
set up the golden calf as an object of worship to 
their flock, singing the praise of capital and competi- 
tion. The most sacred things are sacrificed to this 
god of gold — man's honor, woman's chastity, and 
even natural affection. We see men rejoice in the 
death of a relative who may leave them a few dollars. 
An acquaintance of mine said, when his rich grand- 



48 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

father was dying : "My ship will soon be in." And 
it makes liars of us. How many of us tell the truth 
in a trade, or to the assessor, or to the conduc- 
tor about the ages of our children ; but, saddest of 
all, we hear good women say: "Girls, marry for 
money. Love won't help you." What wonder that 
so many girls barter away their virtue ! If ladies can 
sell themselves fifty years for fifty thousand dollars, 
why should they not sell themselves an hour for five 
dollars? And many of our business men think that 
a woman should make money in any way that she 
can. I can give you the name of a well-known mer- 
chant on State Street, Chicago, who was talking 
one day with a lady clerk in regard to her pay. She 
said : "I cannot live on such w T ages." He replied : 
"You must earn something in another way." She 
innocently answered: "How can I when I'm here 
all day?" And he said: "You have your nights." 
I can tell you of another merchant who said, in ref- 
erence to a lady clerk : "We pay her what we can, 
and a certain gentleman in the store pays her the 
rest." 

Two girls from the country applied for work at a 
printing house in Chicago. And the gentleman in 
mentioning the terms said to them, "If you will 
lodge in the building, your wages will be twice as 
good as if you room elsewhere." It is a sad and 
frightful fact that few men will do much for a 
woman without claiming that she is under private 
obligations to them. Victor Hugo well says, "A 
man can beg, but a woman must sell." f^ 



mi^ 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 49 

Lawyers, as a class, are willing to clear any crim- 
inal who can pay them well; and most preachers 
ers will marry any couple that comes before them, 
if they can pay five dollars — couples that they know 
ought never to be married, and whom they would 
not marry if they could not pay a fee. But we are 
all in this mire of filthy lucre. We license every vice 
for the sake of revenue, and, like Judas, we say to 
our conscience : "They will do it anyhow ; so we 
may as well make them pay something for it, and 
we might as well have the money as somebody else." 
We send ship-loads of rum to Africa, inflicting a 
greater curse than the slave-trade was. Some na- 
tive Christians recently subscribed to build a 
mosque, because the Mohammedan would keep out 
drink, as the Christian rulers would not. Anything 
for money with them. England and America boast 
that they are the most thoroughly Christian nations, 
and also the richest, and we often hear preachers 
glory in the fact that Christians hold the wealth 
of the world in their hands. 

When the world was offered to Jesus, he re- 
sented the offer. He knew that wealth would be a 
hindrance to him in his character and his work. 
John Wesley said : "When money comes into my 
hands, I throw it away, for fear it should get into 
my heart," and every Methodist pledges himself not 
to lay up treasure on earth. 

You may want to ask me, "Do you throw it 
away?" "No." I can honestly say that I have never 
wished to be rich; but under the system of sharp 



50 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

competition, I am compelled, in self-defense, to 
make provision for the future. I am in the chain- 
gang, and must go with the rest, or go under. Re- 
cently a crowd in Chicago made a rush for a street- 
car. They knocked down a woman, and trampled 
her under foot, breaking her arms, legs and ribs, 
No one did it willingly ; every man shuddered as he 
stepped on her, but he was pushed by others, and 
they by still others. That is competition. 

We all do things in business that are against 
our best feelings, but we are compelled by circum- 
stances. 

"Competition is the life of trade," you say, but it 
often becomes the death of trade, and still worse, 
the death of the trader and his customers ; yet in our 
best literature we glorify competition as the secret 
of civilization, when it is a relic of barbarism. We 
are still pirates, shouting, "To the victor belongs 
the spoils I" and we still keep up their practice of 
blackmail. It was a gang of pirates who built the 
fortress of Tarifa on the Rock of Gibraltar, and laid 
tribute on all ships that passed through the Straits. 

You may reply that when our statesmen plead 
for tariff, they do not seek personal profit, but the 
welfare of the country. Better say they are working 
for their particular section of the country. The 
Eastern members want protection on manufactures ; 
the Western, on wool and hides ; the Southern, 
on sugar and cotton ; and the Northern, on ore and 
lumber. I find that even those who admire the 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 51 

American tariff, still denounce Germany as mean 
and selfish for barring out American goods. 

But as this is considered a party question, I will 
discuss it no further. I may not fully understand it, 
like a certain clerk in a country store. A lady priced 
a spool of silk. The merchant said, "Eight cents." 
She replied, "I have only paid five before." He re- 
joined, "The McKinley Bill has killed all the silk- 
worms in foreign countries to encourage the indus- 
try here." She willingly paid the difference for the 
good of the country. The clerk was listening and 
taking notes. The next day a lady asked him the 
price of tape. He mentioned it, and she also com- 
plained of the price. "Well/' he said, "the McKin- 
ley Bill has killed all the tape-worms abroad, and 
that makes the difference." 

America, young, rich, and great, gives the best 
chance for competition of any country in the world. 
She is therefore the best country on earth for the 
strong, but not for the weak. They are growing 
weaker and more numerous every year, and may yet 
sink to the leved of the foreign serf. Castelar says of 
Italy : "The great families, little by little, got posses- 
sion of all the land, till the people were beggars." 
Beautiful, glorious Italy, once the pride of Europe, 
is now her shame. Look at the wretched Italians 
among us. Who would think that they are the 
brothers of Dante and Galileo, Michael Angelo, 
and Columbus? They are the wrecks of tyranny, 
and the ruins of Italy. 



52 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

"For proud oppression in her valley reigns, 

And tyranny usurps her happy plains ; 

The poor inhabitant beholds in vain 

The reddening orange and the swelling grain ; 

Starves in the midst of Nature's bounty cursed, 

And in the laden vineyard dies athirst." 

The immortal lines of Goldsmith, referring to the 
sufferings of Ireland at the hands of England, have 
passed into a proverb : 

"111 fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, 
Where wealth accumulates and men decay.'' 

Poland, once the granary of Europe, now goes 
begging for bread. The sons of Copernicus, So- 
bieski, and Kosciusko, are now the offscourings of 
the world. Why? Because a hundred years ago 
the nobles of Poland held banquets, at which they 
wasted two hundred thousand dollars in a single 
night. And when Poland was decayed, through 
vice, the vulture kings of Europe tore her to pieces. 

We see that in every land ; as one class goes up, 
another goes down. 

A fox came to a farmer's well to drink, found an 
empty bucket, got into it and went down, drank his 
fill, and watched his chance to get up again. The 
farmer came to the well, and finding a full bucket 
at the top, filled his pail, and w r ent his way. A rac- 
coon came to the well and looked into the empty 
bucket, and the fox cried : "O, my friend, get into 
the bucket and come down, and have a drink with 
me." The simple coon stepped in, and when he 
was half way down, he saw the fox passing him on 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 53 

the ascent. And he said: "How is this? You are 
going up, while I am going down." And the fox 
answered : "O, that's all right. That's the way of the 
world. One goes down, while the other goes up." 

So it has always been. Twenty-two cen- 
turies ago, Demosthenes said : " Just as the 
state has fallen, private fortunes have risen." 
Gibbon says : " The union of material wealth 
and social degradation lay like a dark shadow 
over the Roman world." Do you not see that 
shadow creeping over our land? Abraham Lincoln 
saw it, when he said : "There is danger that the 
money power will grow till the people have lost their 
liberty." Daniel Webster exclaimed : "Where there 
is concentrated wealth, liberty cannot live." John 
Quincy Adams said : "I fear the time will come 
when there will be men in America worth a million 
dollars." 

People often say : "We admit the danger, but 
what can you do about it?" What a testimony is 
this again to the iron grip of the present system ! 

When we send a good man to Congress, to fall 
on the golden calf, he often falls down before it in- 
stead. Lincoln says : "When I first went to Wash- 
ington as President, I soon recieved a call from a 
Baptist preacher of my old neighborhood. He said : 
4 My Church is too poor to support my family, so 1 
came to see whether you had a little job for me/ 
'You are the very man we want/ I said ; 'we are a 
little short of honest men here.' We found him a 
place in the revenue department at two thousand 



54 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

dollars a year, and told him we would try to give 
him something better soon. But he said : 'This is 
good enough for me. I don't want anything better.'' 
'What an honest man !' I said to myself. Then the 
war came on, and amid the multitude of other things 
I quite forgot about him. Shortly before the end 
of my term he came into my office in broadcloth and 
silk hat, and said : 'I came to bid you good-bye. I 
have given up my office.' 'Why so?' I said. "Stay 
a little longer, and let us go home together.' 'I've 
had it long enough,' he said; 'let somebody else 
have a chance.' 'Honest man,' I said again. Soon 
after another neighbor called, who said: 'You did 
pretty well by the preacher.' 'O/ I replied, 'we 
gave him two thousand dollars a year, the best we 
could do for him.' 'Well,' he said, laughing, 'he got 
a hundred thousand out of it, and he has gone on a 
trip to Europe.' " 

A selfish system increases selfishness, the disease 
aggravates itself, and breaks out in luxury and ex- 
travagance, which is bad for the body, the soul, and 
the pocket. But with some men it does not go as 
far as the pocket, at least not their own pocket. 
Like a certain Yankee, who, it w r as said, was too 
lazy to work and too respectable to steal ; so he got 
trusted ; and that is the trade at which thousands 
work, from the poorest to the richest. A leading 
family in Chicago, whose name is known through- 
out the land, a few years ago spent several weeks 
in a round of shopping, buying everything on time, 
and then went into bankruptcy ; but they carry their 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 55 

heads just as high as before, and other heads bow 
to them as low as before. Talmage tells of a funeral 
in New York which cost $1,876, and all on trust. 

"Owe no man anything" is the text that needs 
to be sounded into our ears as never before, and some 
preachers might find it wholesome for themselves, 
for there are preachers who, when they leave a 
charge, are rememberd only by their debts; and 
when it is not a personal debt, it is a debt on the 
parsonage or the church. The little church at May- 
fair was built for $8,700, when there were but twenty 
members, and not one of them able to pay $50. I 
know of a church in Wisconsin, on which only one- 
seventh was paid at the time of dedication. That is 
as bad as a fradulent bank. 

The poor ape the rich, and hence live beyond 
their means ; but they are almost compelled to do so 
when people are judged by the appearance they 
make. Savages have few wants ; as some one has 
said, "The greatest want of Africa is to feel her 
want." But we go to the opposite extreme of want- 
ing a thousand things that we do not need ; but to- 
day, when a larger percentage of our people live in 
cities than ever did before, and must buy everything 
they need, and pay high rent, they require more 
money than their fathers did. Fifty years ago, most 
of the people lived in the country or in villages; 
the poorest man could procure a little house and 
garden ; fuel cost little or nothing. His cow, pigs, 
and chickens picked up their own living ; his chil- 
dren ran barefoot, and were plainly clad ; a dollar 



56 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

went further then than five dollars does now. My 
mother was a widow with five children, and scarcely 
any income ; but we were comfortable, because we 
needed little money. As the old joke has it, "Wash- 
ington could throw a silver dollar across the Poto- 
mac River, because a dollar went further in those 
days than now." And the further we go back in his- 
tory, the less money people needed. Herodotus 
says "that in ancient Egypt it only cost four dollars 
to bring up a child ;" but to-day a doctor will not 
bring a baby for four dollars, to say nothing of 
bringing it up. 

A poor fellow was working at a shop, when 
a neighbor of his rushed in, and said : "Your baby 
is about to be born, and the doctor will not come 
without five dollars in advance ;" so the shop-hands 
took up a collection, that the baby might be allowed 
to come into the world. 

It is the luxury which they see around them 
that makes the poor dissatisfied, as Crabbe has ex- 
pressed it : 

"The wealth around them makes them doubly poor." 

The next stage on the downward road is bor- 
rowing, and during the last thirty years multitudes 
of men, who were thought to be climbing the hill of 
prosperity, were going down hill on the coaster of 
borrowed capital. A great deal of our supposed 
wealth never existed, except on paper. Business 
men who are rated at a hundred thousand, often are 
not worth ten thousand. They remind me of the 
old lady who borrowed eleven eggs of a neighbor 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 57 

to make out a dozen for a setting. She said to her- 
self : "When the chickens are grown and lay eggs, 
I can easily return eleven ;" but when they were 
hatched, seven of them w r ere roosters, and of the 
other five, two were eaten by the pigs, and two by 
rats. And when the last one was half-grown, the 
preacher called at the house, and the good lady fried 
the chicken for him, and felt that she was free from 
the debt, because she had given the chicken to the 
Lord. 

Lincoln, speaking of what we owe each other 
through failure and bankruptcy, called it "the Na- 
tional debt ;" and he himself had so great a horror of 
debt that once, while he was a clerk, and acciden- 
tally took a sixpence too much from a lady custo- 
mer, as soon as he discovered the mistake, he walked 
two and a half miles that he might return it at once. 
O for a revival of such honesty ! 

It is said that three-fourths of our people are in 
debt to the other fourth. 

If everybody would pay his debts, there would 
not be as much wealth as we think there is. It has 
been computed that our debts, public and private, 
amount to about forty billion dollars, while the esti- 
mated wealth of the nation is about seventy-five bil- 
lion dollars, so at least half our wealth is debts. 

Borrowing without the prospect of paying, is 
begging and stealing, and so it leads to downright 
stealing. People are often surprised when they see 
a fine gentleman, with a fine family, turn out to be 
an embezzler. But it is not strange. It is the natu- 



58 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

ral fruit of his vicious business — a business based, 
not on the exchange of equivalents, but on specula- 
tion, and that with other people's money. So spec- 
ulation becomes peculation. Beecher said : "We 
are in danger of becoming a Nation of robbers under 
fine forms of dishonesty." In other words, a Na- 
tion of gamblers. We preach and we legislate 
against gambling, but only against one kind of 
gambling, and that the least dangerous form. It is 
all right to gamble with gold in Wall Street, or 
grain on the Board of Trade, or horses on the race- 
course till they drop dead on the track, or in stocks 
and corner lots ; only you must not gamble with 
pieces of paste-board. 

Who are the most dangerous men in this coun- 
try? You say, saloonkeepers, foreigners, Catholics, 
atheists. No ! swindlers and defrauders ! They 
destroy faith in humanity, faith in truth and indus- 
try. Many a man, when he is cheated out of his 
savings, savs : "I'll never save another dollar. Fll 
spend it as fast as it comes, and I'll never again 
put faith in any man." And so the very foundation 
of society is destroyed. Even if the speculator did 
not intend fraud, the effect is the same ; and he is not 
innocent; for he had no right to take risks with 
other people's money. 

But the blackest of these criminals is the man 
who is rich after making others poor. I was calling 
at one of the luxurious homes in Evanston, and the 
lady, in speaking of her husband's failure, said, 
"Yes, we lost everything." But I said to myself, "It 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 



59 



seems you did not lose your elegant furniture and 
sumptuous table and servants, and your easy, lazy 
life." Soon after, her brother failed, and lost the 
little savings which many poor people had entrusted 
to him ; but just before his failure, his daughter was 
married with princely display. 

Sewing women and artists were kept busy for 
several days, and a carpet was laid from the house 
to the church. He once sent a boy to prison for 
breaking into his store at night and taking some 
jack-knives ; but the law never laid a finger on him, 
because his victims were too poor to prosecute. 

How many good women, "the upholders of so- 
ciety," will let their husbands deed their property to 
them, so that the creditors cannot take it. Thank 
heaven, we have some women like Mrs. McKinley, 
who was willing to give up her private property to 
maintain her husband's honor ; but too many are 
willing to profit by their husband's theft. 

I believe in the ballot for woman, as a matter of 
right and public need ; but when I hear some en- 
thusiast say that if women could vote they would 
banish all evils from the land, I think that just so 
long as they are willing to sanction their husband's 
crimes, they cannot be the reformers of the land. 

No wonder that the children of such men and 
women are often thieves, even in their early years. 
How many boys of wealthy families in our cities will 
steal from their playmates or from neighbors' 
houses ! It is in their blood and their bringing up. 
Yet these are the very people who cry out the loud- 



60 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

est against foreigners, and cry America for Ameri- 
cans !" They might take a lesson from the foreigner 
in honesty. A collecting agent in Kansas told me 
that he went out one day to collect from eighteen 
Russians and thirty Americans. All the Russians 
paid their bills, but many of the rest did not. I am 
told that at the Methodist Book Concern the Ger- 
man preachers pay their dues better than the Amer- 
icans. Foreigners are not naturally any more hon- 
est than we are, but we show the effect of our spirit 
of speculation and our sharp competition. 

The German proverb says : "Better go to bed 
with hunger than with debt." Mrs. Sly. at the 
Northwestern University Settlement, has a large 
kindergarten. She was one day asked how she 
could manage so many children alone. She replied : 
"I could not if they were the children of Americans, 
but they are foreigners, who have been taught 
obedience and order at home." 

Which class is most likely to produce the an- 
archist, the enemy of order? There are anarchists 
among foreigners. When a certain young man by 
the name of Pat first stepped on our shores, he said 
to the first man he met : "Have you a Guvernment 
here?" "Yes, sir." "Then I'm agin' it." In the 
opinion of such men "Patriotism" means "Pat-riot- 
ism." But I do not fear Pat as much as the man 
who buys his vote, and buys a whole Congress when 
he can. It used to be a standing joke in Congress 
that, at the close of the session, some one would rise 
and say, "If the Honorable Tom Scott has no more 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 61 

business for this body, I move we adjourn/' 

Is not that state of things anarchy? Was not 
the salary grab anarchy, when it was plainly uncon- 
stitutional? Is it not anarchy to dodge the taxes, 
as so many do? 

I have been called a fool by many of the "best 
people" for paying taxes on notes which I might 
have kept secret. I paid it, not only as a matter 
of honesty, but as a matter of citizenship ; for if we 
want a good Government, it must be supported. Is 
it not anarchy in railroads to disregard the Inter- 
state Commerce law, and discriminate against small 
shippers, as they constantly do? Is it not anarchy 
in them to run through cities faster than the law 
allows, and kill hundreds every year? 

Are not these people killed by anarchists ? I had 
just as soon be killed by a bomb as by an express- 
train. The bomb-thrower has learned his lesson 
from those that hang him. When strikers inter- 
fere with the work of non-union men, they are de- 
nounced by the public, as they ought to be. But 
corporations combine to fix prices, and they boycott 
any man or company that will not submit to their 
terms. Railroad combines refuse to carry the freight 
of any road that will not join the ring. Two years 
ago the Chicago Tribune broke its contract with the 
carriers, who sold penny papers. It was a boycott 
against the cheaper paper, the subscribers, and the 
carriers. The Distillers' Union not long since at- 
tempted to blow up an independent distillery in Chi- 
cago, and would have destroyed life as well as prop- 



62 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

erty, if the plot had not been prevented. The Stan- 
dard Oil Co. is openly accused of blowing up the 
wells of competitors. But what paper or politician 
denounces these acts of injustice? 
As Shakespeare puts it : 

"Plate sin with gold, 
And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks. 
Arm it in rags, a pigmy's straw doth pierce it." 

Some years ago it was reported that the city of 
New York had taken a spasm of enforcing the Sun- 
day law. The next Sunday the police arrested some 
small boys for selling papers, while the saloonkeep- 
ers, grocers, and barbers were passed by. Some 
poor people of Chicago have been fined for stealing- 
ing water from the city through secret pipes. But 
the packing-houses have stolen millions of gallons, 
and have not been fined, and could not be in any 
court. 

Thus we breed anarchists, till our cities are 
under police government. When I was in the rural 
State of Kansas, I was told that seven towns had 
called on the State for protection, as they could not 
govern themselves. This was several years ago ; 
matters are worse now, especially in our large cities. 
The Northwestern Christian Advocate says : "The 
brewers rule Chicago. " We heap curses on the sa- 
loonkeeper, and make him the scapegoat for all our 
sins ; but his master, the brewer, who owns a hun- 
dred saloons, and uses them as recruiting stations 
on election-day, and uses the bar-tender as a cat's- 
paw, this brewer, or distiller, has a high seat in our 



THE RULE OF GOLD. ' 63 

political Conventions and our social circles. Why 
blame the saloonkeeper, when he sees society take 
off its hat to his master, and sees hanging on his 
own wall the revenue stamp, which proclaims that 
Uncle Sam is his partner, and receives circulars 
from the Secretary of State, which show him how 
the liquor-traffic is prospering? He sees leading 
men of the city at his bar, or if they do not come, 
they send orders for liquor to be delivered at their 
homes. He sees Christian men and Christian insti- 
tutions draw rent from saloons, or from hotels 
where liquor is sold. And sometimes, when the 
Church makes an example of the small criminal, 
she passes by a greater one. A well-known Church 
in Chicago expelled a widow and her daughter for 
leasing property for saloon purposes ; but the Trib- 
une declares that one or more trustees of that 
Church draw rent from houses of ill-fame on 
the levee, and the declaration has not been denied. 
We despise the common saloonkeeper, but the 
greater criminal we honor. We lance the carbun- 
cle, but continue to poison the system. 

Do you think that I am a croaker, and have lost 
faith in my country and my fellow-men? Far from 
it. I believe that this is the grandest age that the 
world has ever seen, and I would rather live in 
America than in any other country on earth, and 
partly because of this boundless privilege of free 
speech. Wendell Phillips exclaimed, "The Alps, 
stern and immovable, may be the emblem of mon- 
archy ; ours is the ocean, forever pure, because never 



64 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

still. " Time was when a petition was called anar- 
chy. Free speech is the best means of progress. 
We have changed our Constitution fifteen times, 
and why may we not change it a few times more? 
I like the old motto, "My country, right or wrong." 
When she is right, to defend her in the right ; when 
she is wrong, to save her from the wrong. 

In some respects, we are not as good as our 
fathers were. The selfish system has made us grasp- 
ing and suspicious ; we hardly trust our friends, and 
are afraid of strangers ; hospitality has gone out of 
fashion — it used to be called one of the Christian 
graces. Good people once thought that in entertaining 
a stranger, they were ministering to the master him- 
self, for he said, "I was a stranger, and ye took me 
in ;" but now we often hear that text repeated with 
a new meaning — "took me in/' in the sense of tak- 
ing advantage of a man, instead of befriending him, 
I have heard Bishop Taylor say that the natives 
of Africa cultivate part of their fields and lay up 
the provisions on purpose for the entertainment 
of strangers. In Arabia the stranger is greeted with 
the word, "Welcome ! what do you wish ?" And his 
entertainment costs him nothing but a "God re- 
ward you !" Roderick Dhu said to James Fitz 

James : 

'* A stranger is a holy name." 

In Russia, a tramp is called a Pilgrim. It used 
to be said of the poor whites of the South that they 
were noted for their ignorance and hospitality. We 
are noted for our wisdom, but not for our hospital- 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 65 

ity. I was in a preachers' meeting in Chicago 
where this matter was being discussed, and the 
chairman said : "There is no need of taking a stran- 
ger into your house, for there are police stations/' 
Think of it ! The police dungeon, cold and damp, 
with its walls and floors of stone or iron, and a 
bench without a blanket or pillow, not even a block 
for the head, and when the cell is crowded, most of 
the occupants are obliged to stand all night, or lie 
on the filthy floor. You've read Dickens's descrip- 
tion of Old Scrooge. When he was asked to con- 
tribute something toward sheltering the poor, he 
growled, "Are the prisons full?" You wondered 
if any man could be so heartless. But this presid- 
ing elder of the Chicago District said the same 
thing. On the other hand, I know a man who, af- 
ter working hard all day in a railroad shop, gave up 
his bed to a stranger, and slept on the lounge. It is 
astonishing what fine things some rough men can 
do, and what rough things some fine men can do. 

How does Chicago care for her poor in the 
county-home in Jefferson? I need not tell you. 
The papers declare that it would beggar the powers 
of a Dante to describe the horrors there. You may 
say this does not represent the disposition of the 
people at large. No. But it illustrates the system 
which the people maintain. 

Not only do we spurn the stranger, but even 
the little angels that Heaven sends to our homes. 
The home is not a home without a child ; husband 
and wife are not truly husband and wife till they 



66 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

have the arms of children around them, to bind them 
together ; but we are such slaves to luxury that we 
say we cannot afford to have children. Better say 
we cannot afford to do without them, to draw 
us together, and point us upward. Sir Walter 
Scott's mother had ten children, and wished she had 
more. If Franklin's father had thought that four- 
teen children was enough, we could never have had 
a Franklin, for he was the fifteenth child of his father. 
Children used to be called a blessing; now, many 
people consider them a curse. They speak of them 
as a nuisance and a pest, and sneer at their birth as 
though it were a disgrace. True, we must use judg- 
ment in regard to the number of our children, as we 
must in respect to everything else. Many families 
and many countries have been kept down by this 
kind of overproduction. Fifty years ago, it was said 
that the people of Ireland had twice as many chil- 
dren as they could support. Canada has been kept 
back by the same cause. Still, the old fashion of too 
many children is better for the home and the Na- 
tion than the new fashion of no children. A woman 
that does not love children is a monster; but she 
must love something. See her caress her dogs, 
and sit up with them all night when they are sick. 
See her do up their hair in papers, and put rings in 
the cat's ears. I would rather be a squatter on the 
Western prairie, living in a dugout, fighting floods 
and fire, hot winds and blizzards, with a true woman 
beside me and dear children around me, than live 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 67 

in a palace in Chicago with a fashion-plate for a wife 
and a poodle-dog for a child. 

When Greece ceased to honor motherhood, and 
let the lower classes have all the children, she soon 
destroyed herself. And what is called the best stock 
in America is fast becoming extinct. They talk 
about the dangerous foreigner, and yet they sur- 
render the country to him. God will give the coun- 
try to those who drink beer and have children, 
rather than to those who drink no beer and have no 
children. 

Another evil, peculiar to our time and land, at 
least in its magnitude, is the growth of corpora- 
tions. Never before in the history of the world did 
they grow so fast or numerous as -here, during the 
last thirty years. 

Thus have we seen how natural self-love, step 
by step, has become unnatural selfishness, the iron 
rule, which is incompatible with the Golden Rule. 



CHAP. IV. 

CAN WE PRACTICE IT ? REMEDIES. 

No, you say, yet you would spring to save a 
child at the risk of your own life. We all read, with 
a thrill of joy, of the man in the shipwreck who 
threw away a bag of gold that he might swim to the 
life-boat with a little girl in one arm, though she was 
not his child. The fireman who leaps into the flames 
to save a life; the engineer who stays on his train 
in a wreck ; the soldier in battle, and the missionary 
far from home, — all do these golden deeds, sacri- 
ficing comfort or life for others. Note this fact: 
though in the struggle for existence we bow to the 
millionaire and call the philanthropist a fool, yet 
when they are dead, we build a monument to the phi- 
lanthropist, and never to the millionaire, unless he is 
also a philanthropist. We all say we wish we 
could keep the Golden Rule in business ; but Goethe 
says : "Our desires are presentiments of our capabil- 
ities. " Where there is a will there is a way. Nature 
does not play false with us ■; she does not give a de- 
sire that cannot be gratified, and Jesus, with his deep 
knowledge of nature, would not lay down a rule that 
could not be followed. It is our fault that it cannot 
be followed. Humanity needs to blush for its in- 
humanity. Pope Gregory the Great was one day 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 69 

told that a dead beggar had been found in the street 
who had starved to death ; so he punished himself 
with a severe penance because such a thing had hap- 
pened under his government. 

How can we bring in the golden age, for which 
the good of all time have hoped and prayed? By 
abolishing the rule of gold and establishing the 
Golden Rule. All the progress that man has made 
is due to this very effort. For, though self-love 
through ignorance produced competition, yet it also 
led, through experience, to mutual protection, ^irst, 
the family found that its members, for their own 
happiness and their very existence, must live for each 
other. This everybody admits, and it is suggestive. 
Bacon says : "The nature of things is best seen in 
their small particles." The family illustrates the 
system I advocate. Next, it was seen that the fam- 
ily relatives must help and cherish each other. Soon 
families combined into clans, and clans into tribes, 
for protection in war and success in trade. Finally, 
tribes united into nations. And now to love one's 
country, as a whole, is considered the highest virtue. 
A few men have risen still higher. Fenelon ex- 
claimed : "I love my family more than myself, my 
country more than my family, and the whole w r orld 
more than my country/' Long ago, Diogenes over- 
looked all boundaries, calling himself a cosmopolite, 
a citizen of the world. 

But in the market, where we meet as individuals 
without any thought of relationship, we must be 
"bulls and bears." Yet we do the lower animais 



70 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

injustice ; brutes are not wholly selfish ; they have 
learned that the members of the herd and flock muvt 
toil and fight for each other. The Buffaloes on the 
Western plains, when threatened by other wild 
beasts, put the females and the young into the cen- 
ter of the herd. Then the males form a circle around 
them, with their horns to the foe. The horses of Ar- 
dens, in France, when attacked by a pack of woU-e.t>. 
keep their heels flying till the wolves fly. If 
we would all put our heads together, we could soon 
drive away the wolf of want. Baboons march in 
a company under a leader for defense or food. So 
with bird and insect, Nature with ten thousand 
tongues proclaims the Golden Rule, and declares 
that "godliness is profitable unto all things. " By 
simply being intelligent animals, advanced beyond 
the reptile stage, we can remove the present evils. 
One of the best things about our time is, that we 
look into causes more than ever before. In the 
past, men thought more about the purpose of any- 
thing than its cause, or they took it on faith. "God 
made the world," they said, "and wanted it to be 
as it was ; we must let it alone." No ! Our food is 
poison unless we prepare it for use. We are born 
imperfect, and would die without fostering care. 
Peter the Great was denounced for cutting canals, 
for that was making rivers where God had made 
none. Franklin was condemned for making light- 
ning-rods, as that showed a want of trust. The 
most popular preacher of to-day, Mr. Talmage, 
says : "God does not want this world to be too 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 71 

bright, for fear that we would always want to. stay 
in it." But he saves his credit by also saying: "I 
condense the gospel into four letters, and they spell 
HELP." It is said that "the back is fitted to the 
burden ;" but millions of backs have broken under 
their burdens. We are assured that "God tempers 
the wind to the shorn lamb ;" but countless lambs 
have been frozen to death. In the days of slavery, 
the preachers used to say to the blacks, "God sent 
pious men to Africa, that dark, benighted land, and 
brought you here, that you might sit under the 
droppings of the sanctuary." People used to talk 
about the blasphemy of raising up what God had put 
down. Afflictions, it was said, were sent down from 
heaven as a discipline or punishment, or to deliver 
us from this world. Leigh Richmond, after describ- 
ing the death of the dairyman's daughter, says : 
"Consumption is one of the instruments that God 
has chosen for removing many of his children from 
earth to heaven. " Hannah More thanked God for 
her headaches, which she said were favorable to her 
moral health. My parents were often asked 
whether my blindness was not a judgment on the 
family. Now it is required by law that the eyes of 
every new-born babe must be examined by a doctor. 
This has greatly reduced the percentage of blind- 
ness. So we must look into the causes of all evils. It 
is thought that the greatest service a man can ren- 
der to his fellow-men is to relieve suffering and dry 
the falling tear ; but it is greater service to prevent 
the suffering and the tear. The bliss of heaven, we 



72 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

are told, consists in the fact that "God shall wipe all 
tears from all eyes." But when men shall learn to 
remove the cause of tear's, this earth will be more 
heavenly than heaven itself. How can it be done? 

remedies. 

Since selfishness is the fruit of ignorant self-love, 
we can only destroy it by killing its root, ignorance ; 
and the death of ignorance is intelligence. 



CHAPTER V. 

INTEI/CIGENCE. 

Lyman Beecher exclaimed : "We must educate ! 
we must educate or perish !" Illiteracy, it is said, 
increases crime tenfold ; so education is a necessity, 
and should therefore be compulsory. We should 
not wait until a boy is a criminal before we take 
him in hand, but prevent him from becoming a 
criminal. As Miss Willard says, "Formation is bet- 
ter than reformation. " 

At Mettray, France, neglected children have 
been gathered in large numbers, and divided into 
small groups, each of which is assigned to a sep- 
arate house, under the care of a good man, who is 
called "father." They are so trained in mind, mor- 
als, and manners, that a certificate from Mettray will 
secure a position for a boy anywhere. By education, 
I do not mean a knowledge of dead languages, but 
of living issues. Not higher mathematics, but high- 
er manhood. A training of head, heart, and hand, 
that will make good citizens. 

Adults need it as well as children. We need free 
evening schools and lectures on practical topics. 
Lawyers, instead of dealing only with criminals, 
might save us from a thousand crimes by addressing 
the people, like Pericles of old, on social and political 



74 THE GOLDfiN RULfi. 

duties. Doctors, instead of only treating disease, 
should teach us how to avoid disease. You may 
think all this would be expensive for the Govern- 
ment. No, it would be economy. It is claimed 
that every criminal costs us $1,200, while the edu- 
cation of a boy only costs $400. The New York 
Tribune recently said : "Perhaps we have educated 
the common people too much, and made them dis- 
contented." No wonder that the same issue also 
expressed a doubt whether a republican form of 
government is the best for us. I reply, "No other 
form is possible here." As Daniel Webster said : 
"It is imbedded in the soil, immovable as its moun- 
tains." If the people are discontented, it may be 
that their education has shown them the wrongs 
they suffer. If they are mistaken, they need more 
education to see their mistake. Ignorance is a kind 
of indolence, and the remedy for indolence is in- 
dustry. 



CHAPTER VI. 

INDUSTRY. 

If people knew what a good medicine industry 
is, they would all take it, and then they would sel- 
dom need any other medicine. I asked a little boy 
"what he was good for," and he said, "Good to take 
medicine. " 

There are too many among us who are good for 
nothing but to take medicine. If some of them 
would take a dose of work they would feel better. 
Work made the universe. Work changed this 
world from a desert to a paradise. Work is the 
price of every good. 

Mr. Armour once said : "Boys, if you want any- 
thing, push." I know it is thought that nowadays 
it is worth more to have a pull than to push. But a 
man cannot have a pull unless he or his friends have 
done a good deal of pushing, and a pull will not £elp 
him long unless he is a man of push. And if some 
poor men would push and tug as many rich and 
great men have, they would be better off. 

The first ten dollars that Beecher earned, he re- 
ceived for a Fourth of July address, which he gave 
twenty-five miles from college. And he walked 
the fifty miles that he might have the ten dollars 
clear for books. Ingersoll, in his boyhood, an old 



76 THE RULE OF GOLD. 

neighbor of his tells me, kept a peanut stand in Mil- 
waukee, had his books with him, and studied law 
when he was not selling peanuts. At length he 
went into a country town to practice; but having 
little to do at first, he pieced out his time 
and his living by hoeing corn and digging 
potatoes. Moody, who might live in luxury, 
denies himself of comforts when there is work 
to be done. When he was holding meetings in the 
Western Aveneue Methodist Episcopal Church, 
Chicago, one evening, after the great audience had 
assembled, he came running through the rear door 
into the pastor's study, and said to him, "I have 
had no time for supper ; so I have just got me a hand- 
ful of crackers and cheese, and I'll eat it while you 
go in and open the meeting." Emma Abbott com- 
menced her career by walking many miles through 
the country, from schoolhouse to school-house, and 
carrying her guitar, unless her father went and car- 
ried it for her. Anna Dickinson earned her first 
money scrubbing pavements. Solomon says : "The 
hand of the diligent shall bear rule. But the sloth- 
ful shall be under tribute." Yes, the diligent must 
rule. But they should rule for the good of all. We 
cannot all be as rich as they, but with their industry 
we can usually secure comfort. As the Chinese 
proverb says: "Great wealth comes by destiny; but 
ordinary wealth by industry." And if some poor 
men were willing to work for such wages as many 
rich men have worked for, they might get a start, 
too. It is said when Pat landed in New York, and 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 77 

was walking down street, thinking about what he 
had heard in Cork, that a poor man could pick up a 
dollar anywhere in America, he suddenly saw a half- 
dollar on the sidewalk. But he said : "I'll not stop 
for that; I'll wait until I come where the dollars 
are." Boys, pick up the half-dollars and the dimes, 
for they make the dollars. Small wages are better 
than none. An energetic man will do anything rath- 
er than nothing. I have known a blind man to 
peel willows at two cents a pound, and he made 
enough to buy many comforts for his mother. I 
have heard of a man who was confined to his bed 
with paralysis, yet he could not bear to be idle. So 
he had his friends put eggs around him in bed, that 
he might hatch them. If you are determined, you can 
hatch out or hatch up something. I have known 
people who would rather beg than work for small 
wages. But there is a reason for every absurdity. 
The great profits of capital during the last thirty 
years have made the workman dissatisfied with his 
small share. And the rich have not all gained their 
wealth by work. They sometimes inherit it, and 
still think they have a right to be idle. No one has 
a right to be idle. We all need to work to be healthy 
and happy. 

The stagnant body and mind lose their freshness 
like the stagnant pool. The rich idler makes the 
tramp by example, and often becomes a tramp him- 
self; for if he loses his money, he sometimes has 
neither spirit nor skill to do anything. The idler is a 
drone in the human hive, a drug on the market, a 



_ - 



78 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

burden to society. How many healthy young 
women will let a father, brother, or uncle, support 
them because they are too lazy and proud to work ! 
They visit their friends to sponge their board. They 
resemble the sponge in absorbing, but not in giv- 
ing, for they contribute nothing to the world. They 
are parasites, living on others, like bedbugs and lice. 
Yet they will slam the door in the face of a tramp, 
when they themselves are the most contemptible 
tramps, for they put themselves upon you, and stay 
a month. 

"Work is a worship,'' says Carlyle. Idleness 
is a disgrace, or should be considered so, and in 
woman as well as man. A certain lady principal of 
a seminary used to say to the girls, "You are being 
prepared here for elegant leisure." She had better 
have said elegant laziness. Laziness is the unpar- 
donable sin. We must fill the leisure of rich and 
poor. George Eliot said : "Important as it is to di- 
recfthe occupations of a people, it is still more im- 
portant to direct their leisure. " Nature abhors a 
vacuum, especially in the head. If we do not fill 
it with something good, it will fill itself with some- 
thing bad. If the soil is not cultivated, weeds will 
grow. 

Honor all useful work. The Japanese say that 
the farmer is to be honored most of all, because he 
brings something out of nothing; next, the me- 
chanic, for he takes what he finds, and combines 
it into new forms ; and, lastly, the merchant, for he 
only handles what others produce. 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 79 

We reverse the order, and honor the merchant 
most. Many of the most useful employments we 
treat with contempt. No calling is more essential, 
and few require more skill, than that of the cook, yet 
how we despise it. Men, who have been cursed with 
bad cooking, have often said, in the words of the 
old adage, "God sends the food, but the devil sends 
the cooks." If we felt more interest in cooks, they 
might feel more interest in their work. Nothing is 
more important than the work of the nurse, yet we 
appreciate it so little that we often intrust it to in- 
competent hands. Many children turn out badly, 
because they are brought up under such tuition. 
And many have no affection for their parents, be- 
cause they were not nursed or taught by them. Cato 
devoted himself to his son, so that in after years 
the boy might associate his father with his early 
life. It takes more brains and character to be a 
good housekeeper or nurse than to do most of the 
work in shops and stores ; yet we treat the cook and 
nurse with less respect than the shop-hand or the 
clerk. Treat them all with respect and honor, and 
treat idleness as a crime. We need labor-farms 
and work-houses, where every tramp and idler can 
be sent, if he cannot, or will not find work himself. 

"Satan finds some mischief still 
For idle hands to do." 

So it becomes a matter of self-protection to set 
them to work. Work pays better than elegant leis- 
ure ; better than tramping or striking ; better than . 



80 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

debt. Especially in America should work be hon- 
ored. When an Englishman said to Lincoln, "What 
was your family coat of arms?" he replied, "Shirt- 
sleeves." But of what use is industry without 
economy ? 




CHAPTER VII. 

ECONOMY. • 

What's the good of your pocket if it has a hole 
in it? Pay-day with most families means the day 
to pay debts, because they are a month or more 
behind. There is more than one kind of intemper- 
ance. Intemperance in eating, as a rule, costs more 
than intemperance in drinking. Many poor families 
buy everything they see in the markets, eat too 
much, and throw enough into the stove and garb- 
age-box to support a small family. At the work- 
ingman's home in the World's Fair, where there was 
a family of five, the daily expense for the table was 
only sixty cents. Many students board themselves 
for a dollar a week. I know two men who are 
totally blind and perfectly deaf, and yet by industry 
and economy are laying up money. I know a young 
man who has been working for his board and $20 a 
month, and saves $15 a month. Some old men tell 
me that in their earlier years they never owned an 
overcoat, and did not have a clock in the house. I 
have a right to speak in this matter, for all that I 
have is due to what I have saved, rather than to what 
I have earned. It has always been a rule with me 
to spend a little less than I make. 

People think that Barnum made his money by 



82 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

tricks ; but he says : "When I had bought the mu- 
seum in New York I was in debt, so I carried cold 
lunches, and my wife did her own work till we were 
out of debt ;" and he adds, "I determined at the very 
outset to deserve success/' 

You say, "But luxury puts money into circu- 
lation." That is the saloonkeeper's argument, and it 
is true ; but it is a Wasteful circulation. When the 
Bradley-Martin banquet was over, it left no perma- 
nent result. A half million dollars changed hands, 
but the community was not the richer. The vast 
fortune which Caligula received from Tiberius, he 
squandered in ten months ; but does any one call 
him a public benefactor ? 

Suppose a scientific crank of great wealth de- 
cided to dig a hole a hundred miles deep, that he 
might pierce the crust of the earth and see its in- 
terior ; times would be lively around the hole. Shops 
would spring up as if by magic, and pour out shov- 
els and picks ; workmen and tourists would flock 
from near and far; lots would go up as fast as the 
hole went down ; fabulous prices would be paid for 
everything that came to the top ; dirt would no lon- 
ger be cheap ; millions would be spent ; but every 
sensible man would say that it was a waste of 
money. 

Money should not be squandered or hoarded, 
but invested — put into property, business, art, and 
education. We should have savings-banks in con- 
nection with the post-office, where the poorest man 
could put every penny that he can spare, and have it 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 83 

kept with interest for future use. Thus all the money 
. would circulate, and to good purpose. 

A man might aid the circulation of his blood 
by turning summersaults all day, but he had better 
do it by useful work. 

Never go in debt, except for something that will 
pay the debt. The Quaker said to his boy: "My 
son, never go in debt ; but if you must, go in debt 
for manure, for that will pay for itself." Moody says : 
44 Debt is the devil's saddle, and when he gets it on, 
he mounts and rides. " "The borrower is servant to 
the lender." Pay promptly for your own sake. 
John Randolph exclaimed: "I have found the 
philosopher's stone ; it is pay as you go." And for 
your creditor's sake: "He doubly pays who quickly 
pays." 

Do not beat down the price, or you will beat 
yourself. The merchant will say to the wholesaler : 
"I cannot sell these goods at the old price. I must 
get them cheaper." Then the wholesaler says the 
same to the manufacturer ; then the latter cuts down 
wages. So the people are paid in their own coin. 

We are wasteful in benevolence because we do 
not give with judgment and system. About all that 
some of our benevolent movements amount to is 
to give a salary to those who represent the w T ork. 
In the miracle of the loaves, the lad's dinner was 
used, and nothing was wasted, and if we would 
make the most of every little donation, and waste 
nothing, we would work miracles of benevolence. 

Countless thousands have been collected for the 



84 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

Woman's Temple, but what is it worth to the tem- 
perance cause ? 

I have heard of a case where $50 was paid to 
distribute $12, and I know of an instance in which 
$1,500 was gathered for a benevolent object, and it 
was all spent in experiments. A few years ago, Mrs. 
Plankington, was the head and front of benevolent 
societies in Milwaukee, while every day at the 
Plankington House the garbage cart carried away 
broken victuals enough to feed a dozen families. 
We need officers to find the cases of real want. The 
poorest people often have too much modesty and 
self-respect to make their wants known ; while those 
who have no modesty or pride are clamorous for 
aid, even when they do not need it. A Polish woman 
in Chicago, while begging for help at the relief quar- 
ters, had her pocket picked of $600. A woman in 
Evanston received $12 from the Associated Chari- 
ties, and she spent it for photographs. 

Nothing so well illustrates the wastefulness of 
cities as our sewers. We pride ourselves on the 
sewer system, but it should be abolished. It plun- 
ders the treasury, poisons the water, and robs the 
soil. All the sewage should be boxed up and sent 
into the country, to be put back into the soil. 
That is what the Chinaman does, and he is the best 
farmer in the world. He sometimes takes five crops 
off the same piece of ground in a year. 

Victor Hugo remarks : "It is often said that gold 
is filth ; better say filth is gold/' An old lady saw 
some workmen filling: a box with filth. She asked 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 85 

what they wanted of that. They replied, "We're 
going to send it to the farmers ;" and she exclaimed, 
"For the land's sake !" "Yes," they said, "the poor 
land needs it." 

The government and the rich must set the ex- 
ample in economy for the poor, because the poor 
copy the rich, and because the rich have more to 
waste. As the old English song has it — 

''Economy is a comely thing: 
Good in a subject, better in a king." 

Economy in the Government is most favorable 
to the poorer classes, as they pay the bulk of the 
taxes. Uncle Sam should remember Jefferson's 
maxim, "Economy in the public expense, that labor 
may be lightly burdened." I cannot better close this 
section than with the words of Cicero : "Economy 
is great revenue;" and Miss Edgeworth's motto, 
"Waste not, want not." But of all forms of extrava- 
gance, the worst is vice, and the remedy is virtue. 



-v^£%n^ 



CHAPTER VIII. 

VIRTUE. 

Franklin says : "You complain of the taxes, but 
we tax ourselves twice as much by our idleness, 
three times as much by our pride, and four times as 
much by our folly." All excess is vice, whether you 
call it luxury or debauchery ; whether it is prac- 
ticed at home or in the dens of vice ; whether it is 
the act of a rich man or a poor man. How often rich 
men are picked up drunk at night, put into a cab, 
and sent home ; while some poor fellow is hurried 
to the station and fined ! A preacher in Milwaukee 
found two men who had crept into his basement 
for shelter. He had them arrested as burglars ; but 
he did his utmost to clear a gentleman who had 
robbed the city of ten thousand dollars. 

When the Honorable Mr. So-and-So dies of dis- 
sipation, it is pronounced a case of heart failure ; 
but when it is Tom Jones, it is called a brutal de- 
bauch. 

Whatever injures the body is a vice, whether 
it is called dissipation or fashion. Women lecture 
men about their vices, yet men have better health 
than women do. A certain wag said to his wife : 
"You scold me for getting tight once a week, ,and 
you are tight in corsets all the time." Corsets are 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 87 

worse than whisky, ruinous to mother and offspring. 
Many women suffer from accidents which were 
caused by their cumbersome mode of dress ; others 
suffer from neglect of exercise; others, still, from 
the effect of tonics or opiates. No doubt many are 
broken down by too much work and too much fam- 
ily, but these, too, are wrongs which right living 
will remove. 

Women talk about the money men waste in 
vice ; but many of the men in our prisons say that 
they came there through the extravagance of their 
wives. On the other hand, we hear that women are 
driven to the insane asylum because their husbands 
carry the money, and dole it out to them as they 
please. I believe that women, as a class, are more 
economical than men, and, on the whole more vir- 
tuous. But they need to do some cleaning on their 
side of the house, as well as on ours. It is often said 
that we should have as high a standard for men as 
for women. Certainly. And we should have as 
high a standard for women as for men — health, in- 
dependence, courage. I believe in a "White Life 
for Two," but I also believe in a strong life for two. 
When any young lady goes to a party in midwinter 
in a scant and flimsy dress, it is as bad as for a 
young man to get drunk at the party. It is as bad 
for her to eat confectionery by the pound, as for him 
to smoke cigars by the dozen. It is as bad for her 
to lead an idle life, as for him to lead a dissipated 
life. What has this chapter on virtue to do with the 
subject of this book? It shows that of all forms of 



88 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

tyranny, vice is the most oppressive. Of all forms 
of government, the most important is self-govern- 
ment. When we all learn to govern ourselves, polit- 
ical governments will be perfect, or will not be 
needed. 

As to the saloon, I shall not discuss the natural 
or acquired craving for stimulants ; for I am only 
dealing with things as they are. Neither shall I 
dwell on the evils of the saloon ; they are too well 
known. But it seems to me that the saloon is an 
effect, rather than a cause. Jesus did not attack the 
sellers of strong drink. He denounced the men who 
stood in places of authority and influence, and who 
claimed to have the light yet kept the people in 
darkness. As Victor Hugo says : "The sin is his 
who made the darkness." The saloon is one of 
those poison plants that grow in the dark. But it is 
not all bad, or it could not live. There is something 
good in every bad institution, and it is by virtue 
of this that it exists. The good features of the sa- 
loon are its freedom and sociability. It is the only 
place where everybody is welcome. You cannot 
stay in a store, hotel, or depot, unless you have busi- 
ness Jhere. You cannot sit in the rooms of the 
Young Men's Christian Association, unless you are 
a member; or if you are allowed to remain a few 
minutes, you must be quiet, and not disturb those 
who are reading. So the stranger on the street, the 
young man who has no comfortable room or com- 
pany at his boarding-place, the agitator, the tramp, 
the blind man, and cripple, turn into the saloon. 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 89 

There they can rest or talk, warm themselves or cool 
themselves, and have a glass of water if they want|| 
nothing else. I have heard a blind peddler say that 
he was so well patronized in saloons, that, although 
he was a teetotaler himself, when he walked down 
the street and heard the clink of glasses, it gave him 
a sense of pleasure. It chanced, in the roundabout 
of business, that a saloonkeeper came in debt to 
me; he paid me promptly and fully, though I of- 
fered to give him time and reduce the bill, as I 
heard that he was running behind. I wish that 
some of my brethren would use me as well. This 
humanity and manliness is the power of the saloon. 
We must fight it with its own weapons. Welling- 
ton conquered Napoleon, and Peter the Great beat 
Charles XII., by learning the tactics of their foe. 

We need public sitting-rooms, where all can feel 
at home. When Orpheus passed the Isle of the Si- 
rens, and his crew was about to desert him, he took 
his harp and played a sweeter strain than the song 
of the sirens ; so the crew preferred to stay with 
him. A Sunday-school superintendent in Kansas 
City, passing a saloon one Sunday, was attracted 
by the sweet music ; he went in and engaged the or- 
chestra to play for his school. It did not only help 
the school, but within a year most of the men were 
in the Church. The armies of Europe went to Pal- 
estine to drive out the infidel ; they failed, but they 
brought back with them lessons of tolerance, and 
many useful arts. The crusade against the saloon 
has not accomplished its object, but it is learning 



90 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

from the saloon itself how to deal with men. Make 
; J the home and temperance hall more attractive than 
the saloon, and it will die from neglect. When I was 
in Rockford, I was told that when they put drinking 
cups and basins on the street, they happened to 
place one near a saloon, and the barkeeper said that 
when men came down the street and saw the cool, 
running water, they took a drink, and passed his 
door. A friend told me this story: "I rented my 
upstairs to a carpenter. As he had little room, and 
nothing to do at home, he went out evenings and 
sometimes came home drunk. I told him to move. 
He went into a house which had an empty base- 
ment ; he put his work-bench there, and did piece- 
work evenings. He saved a little money, and that 
awoke his pride. He went on, and now has a home 
of his own." Circumstances have more to do with 
men than we realize. 

Churches should be open as places of resort for 
friendship, amusement, and instruction, and on Sun- 
day for the discussion of practical themes by men 
of all classes. It might help to solve the problem 
of Sabbath desecration. In many quarters the Holy 
Sabbath is the worst day of the week ; many women 
and children tremble to see Sunday come, and re- 
joice to see it go. It is the day of dissipation. This 
is due in part to the want of something better, and 
in part it is a reaction from the overwork of the 
week. It has been estimated that if everybody was 
usefully employed, and no one perniciously em- 
ployed, all the work of the world could be done in 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 91 

four hours a day. Then every day would be a Sab- 
bath. Pat was about right when he said : "There 
ought to be six Sundays in a week, and only one 
working day." Then work would be a pleasure, 
and earth an Eden. Then working people would 
have some chance to improve their minds. At pres- 
ent when they have worked all day, and for six days, 
and only have a little respite in the evening or on 
Sunday, they are too tired to study or even to think ; 
and through fatigue or reaction they are inclined to 
spend their leisure in idleness or dissipation. Then 
we say they do not care to improve and deserve their 
hard lot. We are like the wildcat that caught a 
nightingale. He had his victim under him with his 
claws in her quivering flesh, and he said : "Sing me 
one of the sweet songs which some enthusiasts im- 
agine that you can sing, and I will spare your life.'' 
But the poor bird could only utter screams of pain, 
so the brute said, "If that is your song, you deserve 
to die," and tore her to pieces. Give weary men, over- 
worked women and degraded children the time and 
the means that are requisite to mental improvement 
and this world will ring with a nightingale's song 
such as it has never yet heard, and never 
dreamed of. We look back to Eden and forward to 
heaven, because they mean purity and rest. And 
this desire of the heart is a prophecy of Paradise re- 
gained. Do you think that it will never come? 
Then why do you pray, "Thy kingdom come, thy 
will be done on earth as it is in heaven" ? 

But if Jesus said little about drinking and Sab- 



92 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

bath-breaking, he said much about judgment and 
mercy. Instead of teaching our children that the 
great virtues are not to drink, not to smoke, and 
not to swear, teach them that they are honesty, pur- 
ity, and love. Do not give your boy those books 
which are entitled "Successful Men," but which 
only tell us how certain men became rich ; but give 
him the books which teach that character is the 
only success and service, the end of life. Do not 
point him to the millionaire as his hero, or to any 
man who has merely won "a proud position," but 
point to a man like Mr. Lane, superintendent of the 
schools in Chicago, who struggled for years under a 
heavy debt, till he paid the last dollar. Point to the 
men in all ages who have lived for manhood and 
mankind. Teach him to say, — 

1 'The honest man though a' so poor, 
Is king of men for a' that." — Burns. 

1 'My strength is as the strength of ten, 
Because my heart is pure." — Tennyson. 

"None is deformed but he that is unkind.'' 

— Shakespeare . 

Yankee is a synonym for trickery. I like the 
Yankee — he is kind and agreeable. I would rather 
live with him than with any other man on earth. 
Still, he needs to be watched. I once talked with a 
German chemist, who had traveled and worked in 
various parts of Europe, but when he visited the 
shops of Chicago, he was astonished to see to what 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 93 

extent adulteration was practiced. But most of us 
are up to tricks. 

We often say that corporations have no souls. 
Perhaps it is because we have no soul in dealing 
with them. Sam Jones says : "You see a conductor 
take a cash fare, put it into his pocket for himself, 
and walk down the aisle of the car, with head erect, 
as though he were the best man in the world, and 
you wonder how he can have so much cheek. I 
will tell you. He knows that every man in that car 
would beat him out of his fare if he could. " 

O that we had so high a standard of virtue that 
no man could get rich by dishonesty, and no woman 
could get more for an hour of vice than for a week's 
hard work ! The great school of virtue is the home. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE HOME. 

Hence the home is the chief remedy. Plato 
said : "Whatever is excellent in the State, must be- 
gin in the home." And if the father considers him- 
self the head of the family, he should feel that the 
greater responsibility rests on him. Boys imitate 
their father. So he should teach his boys, by ex- 
ample and precept, that virtue is not feminine, that 
it is the glory of manhood as well as womanhood. 
Indeed, the very word virtue means manliness. But 
since the care and character of a child depend chiefly 
on the mother, it is of supreme importance that we 
have good mothers. 

Emerson says : "What is civilization? The pow- 
er of good women. Give us the true woman, and no 
lawyer need be called to write stipulations, for she 
molds the lawgiver and writes the law." The efforts 
to elevate the Indians have effected little, except 
when the squaws have been educated ; then the 
tribe has rapidly risen. For not only were the chil- 
dren better taught, but better born. Much as we 
say about the second birth, it is more important to 
be born right the first time. Heredity is the hope 
of the world ! Only as men improve from one gen- 
eration to another, and transmit better qualities to 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 95 

their offspring, will the world move forward. But 
the nature of a child at birth depends mainly on the 
mother. Every great man has had a remarkable 
mother ; so girls, even more than boys, need to be 
well taught and trained. 

The best thing that we can do for the world, is 
to establish a good home. It is a pity that so many 
of our best men and women are single. It is un- 
fortunate for them and for the country, because they 
lose the joys of home and the country soon loses 
them ; while the lower classes multiply. Girls who 
would be noble mothers, and would make happy 
homes, make machines of themselves in shops and 
offices ; but by our system of competition, which 
does not give sufficient work or wages to men, we 
drive women from the home to find work, and they 
drive the men from their work by underbidding 
them. 

We complain that the foreigners come here and 
crowd out our workmen, and then we let our women 
do the same thing, when they ought to be in the 
homes, and the men in their places. Napoleon said : 
"What France needs is good mothers." The coun- 
try needs their moral influence and their patriotic 
support. As Beecher said : "When the mother 
teaches the child to say, 'Our Father,' she should 
also teach him to say, 'Our Fatherland.' " Aristo- 
tle said : "The best way to preserve the State is to 
train up the citizen in its spirit, and mold him in its 
constitution/' 

The hearthstone is the corner-stone of a re- 



96 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

public. Let the family gather around it, and by 
conversation, reading, and music, by the inter- 
change of thought and look and kindly act, weave 
that net of affection and faith which in after years 
will bind them together and keep them safe. We 
live too much in public — too many lodges, parties, 
and meetings ; too little love of home and attention 
to children. But to teach children, you must have 
children. If you say, again, that you can't afford 
it, I suggest that if you will put aside some of your 
extravagance and follies, perhaps you could afford 
it. As Franklin said : "What maintains one vice 
will bring up two children." Do not leave them 
wholly to a nurse ; she cannot take the place of a 
parent. It is a credit to our nurses that they often 
love the children more than the mothers do. And it 
is a great credit to all our hired help that, though 
their wages are usually small and they have every 
opportunity to steal, they are as a class, faithful and 
honest. 

Dr. Chapin, of Beloit, nobly calls them "the min- 
isterial element of the home," for they minister to 
our wants. If we all had this feeling, there would 
not be much trouble about hired girls. They go 
to the shops because they have more liberty, hav- 
ing their evenings and Sundays free, and because 
hired girls are the only class who still are called 
servants. No other class of hired hands, not even 
the coachman or errand-boy, is called a servant, but 
only the housekeepers, and how often we hear peo- 
ple say, with a sneer, "I want her to stay in her 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 



97 



place/' as though she were a being of a lower order, 
when often she is more intelligent and more lady- 
like than the daughter ! 

I have known her to be fined for breaking a cup, 
and I have known of cases, especially at boarding- 
houses, where she was not allowed cake or fruit. 
A lady in Evanston discharged her girl because she 
sneezed ; she was a woman that was not to be 
sneezed at. These girls prize independence as much 
as we do. I have heard a girl called impertinent 
because she wanted to see her room before she took 
her place. Why shouldn't she see it, when the girl's 
room is usually the worst one in the house? It is 
next to the roof, cold in winter, hot in summer, and 
too small to turn around in. A gentleman in Evans- 
ton said to me : "There is one class of people in this 
country that I'd like to see blown out of existence, 
and that is these cursed hired girls." He and his 
wife are of that shoddy class who keep only one girl 
in a large house to save expense, and want her to 
do the work of two. His sister cheated a girl out 
of a large part of her wages. No wonder that such 
people have trouble with their help. I know that 
some people are more than kind to their hired girls. 
A professor in Evanston gives up entertainments 
evening after evening, and stays at home, if he hears 
the girl say that she wants to go out; and I know 
that some girls are very trying, but we have had a 
better chance than they, and it is our place to teach 
them if we can. We cannot do it if we treat them 
with contempt. Mrs. Wesley taught her children to 



98 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

treat her help with the utmost respect, and always 
say "please" and "thank you" to them. This is the 
best means of helping the ignorant classes. You 
can reach them through your help, by your conver- 
sation, by books, by taking them to meetings, lec- 
tures, and evening schools. This brings us to an 
other remedy — 



•s^i?^ 



CHAPTER X. 

THE SCHOOL. 

Next to the home is the school, and to many 
a child it is more than the home. The teacher is his 
real mother, and in the course of years she is a 
mother to hundreds of children. So, in the words of 
Scripture, "the children of the barren are more than 
they of the married women." The child may go to 
the Church or Sunday-school, but that is only for 
an hour or two in the week ; while the public-school 
teacher has him six hours a day for five days in the 
week. So she, more than any one else, molds his 
mind and character. My teachers have been my 
best friends. O, what joy and gratitude the thought 
of them awakens in my mind! They made study 
a delight, and made life glorious. Still our schools 
are very defective, both in the matter and the man- 
ner of instruction. Of the matter, I have spoken 
under the head of Intelligence. I will only add, 
that, instead of teaching this, that, and the other, 
merely for the sake of discipline, we can give the 
same discipline by studies and employments which 
are useful. As to the manner, we make parrots of 
children, teaching them to repeat things which mean 
nothing to them : as, for example, giving the direc- 
tion of every country from every other country. 



trfa 



100 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

Show them the countries on the map : and their rela- 
tive position will be stamped on the mind. Their 
time is too precious for jargon. When the average 
child does not like school, the fault is in the school. 
He loves to listen to instructive talk at home. 
Then why would he not at school, if it were home- 
like ? The kindergarten is a long step in this direc- 
tion ; let us put its methods into all our schools and 
colleges. 

The democratic nature of the school must be 
sacredly guarded, that the children of all classes may 
meet on the same level and be treated alike. I fear 
the select school more than the parochial. It fos- 
ters pride and exclusiveness. I have heard well- 
dressed children say they did not want to stay in the 
private school, because others dressed better than 
they. And this spirit is creeping into our public 
schools and colleges. As a prominent educator has 
said of the Chicago University, "It is society first, 
athletics second and study third." 

That all may have the benefit of the public 
school, text-books and stationery should be a part 
of the furniture ; and in cases of necessity, clothing 
and dinner as in the schools of Paris. Some slov- 
enly families may take advantage of this ; but their 
children, above all others, need to be in school, for 
their own sake and for the public safety. All this may 
be expensive at first; but it will pay for itself. 
Money put into schools is the best investment the 
Government can make. Soon the child finds him- 
self in the larger school of society. 



CHAPTER XI. 



SOCIETY. 



Society, with its hedge-fence of caste, dividing 
men into rich and poor, high and low! Not high 
and low according to character, but according to 
cash. We talk about the lower classes as we talk 
about the lower animals. Even good people some- 
times speak about being kind to the poor in a con- 
descending v/ay that is a positive insult. Sir Walter 
Scott wrote to his agent : "Be kind to the poor peo- 
ple, and to the dogs." The politician expressed 
a prevalent opinion when he said, " 'The masses' 
means 'Them asses/ " Nay, sometimes they seem 
to think that workingmen are mere machines that 
cannot grow tired. I heard a gentleman say, as 
though it were a preposterous thing, that he saw a 
laboring man carry home an easy-chair, and he 
thought that these people were getting altogether 
too fine. Yet he himself had his house filled with 
sumptuous chairs and luxurious couches. Who 
needed the easy chair the most? 

I have often been astonished, in traveling, to find 
how much better I was treated when I had on my 
best clothes than when I wore my old clothes. You 
may say, "The coat shows the man." But was I 
not the same man in either coat ? When Jesus lived. 



102 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

the licentious Tiberius wore the imperial purple. 
If you had seen the two men side by side, would 
you have judged them by their robes? Or, fifty 
years ago, would you have judged the rail-splitter, 
the tanner, or the canal boy, by the clothes ? 

"The rank is but the guinea's stamp, 
The man's the gold for a' that." — Burns. 

Indeed the rich coin their gold out of the poor. 
They do not only live by their labor, but, some- 
times, by cheating them out of their wages, or bor- 
rowing their money and keeping it. Many of our 
finest gentlemen and ladies live by stealing. I know 
what I am saying. I could mention scores who walk 
around in broadcloth and silk, loaded with jewelry, 
conspicuous at parties, Churches, and Conventions, 
who are spending poor people's money. Yet these 
are the first people to talk about the lower classes. 

Many of the rich are just and kind to the poor ; 
and many of the poor are unjust to the rich, and un- 
kind to each other. But I am talking about the 
curse of caste, which divides men by the wall of 
gold, instead of uniting them by the Golden Rule. 

The rich need the poor more than the poor need 
the rich. When the plebs marched out of Rome, 
the patricians were prompt to make terms with them 
to secure their return. They knew they could not 
do without them. If all the foreigners, the children 
of foreigners, and the Negroes, should leave this 
country, who would be left, and what would they 
do ? When the cry was the fiercest in San Francisco 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 103 

to drive out the Chinaman, even then, when it came 
to individuals, people said : "The rest may go, but 
I'll keep my John." Many of our best foreigners of 
late, because of our mismanagement, have returned 
to Europe. It may be their loss, but it certainly 
is ours. 

"America for Americans," we cry, but the In- 
dian has the best right to raise that shout. 
The rest of us came here. And what right have 
we to play the dog in the manger, and keep 
others away from a country which we do not 
know how to use? Those who come here 
from choice are often more devoted to the country 
than those who are Americans simply because they 
were born here. Little Bessie, an adopted child, 
was telling her playmate, Amy, how much her papa 
loved her. "He isn't your papa/' said Amy, "he 
just took you ;" but Bessie replied : "He is my papa 
more than your papa is your papa. He took me 
because he wanted me and loved me ; but your papa 
is your papa 'cause he couldn't help hisself." 

O that this Nation were so great, so strong, that 
it could assimilate and regenerate all who come to it, 
and could say to the world, "Him that cometh unto 
me, I will in no wise cast out." Some of these for- 
eigners we do not need, but they need us. A 
healthy body is not disturbed by a few microbes. 
There is more danger in always trying to avoid 
them. Charles the Victorious starved to death for 
fear of taking poison. A man in Emporia, Kansas, 
said to me, "We have such a fine community here, 



104 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

that I wish the city could be walled in, and every- 
body kept out." I replied : "By such selfishness you 
would soon become the meanest lot in all the 
world ;" for selfishness beats itself. 

It is often said that this country should not be 
the dumping-ground for the refuse of all nations ; 
certainly not, but this class of people do not have 
the means nor the ambition to come. Doubtless 
many criminals do come; but an equal number of 
our criminals go to hide themselves in other coun- 
tries. It is a relief to reflect that this country was 
settled by criminals — the' % crew of Columbus was 
chiefly composed of them; so were many of the 
early settlements. Even the Puritans were consid- 
ered criminals in England. Criminals are moral in- 
valids. "And we that are strong ought to bear the 
infirmities of them that are weak." We do so in the 
family ; if one member is a criminal, the others stand 
by him and uphold him to the last. We all said that 
Guiteau must hang, yet we admired his sister for 
trying to the last moment to save him. We do not 
admire Brutus for condemning his own sons to death. 
The word penitentiary implies that the object of a 
prison is to lead men to repentance, and not merely 
to punish them. You may call this sentimentalism, 
but whenever it has been proposed to make punish- 
ment more humane, there has been some one to 
sneer, "Sentimentalism !" You yourself would not 
wish to restore the cruel punishments of the past. 
We are all criminals against God and society. We 
talk about the prodigal sons, when the parable con- 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 



105 



demns us more than them, for it was spoken against 
the elder brother, to expose his selfishness and 
pride. 

At a certain reform school the principal was con- 
ducting a minister to the chapel, and said to him, 
"You can say what you like to the boys, only let me 
ask that you do not mention the Prodigal Son ; we 
have had eleven ministers in succession who have all 
spoken on that text, and the boys are tired of it." 
The minister replied : "I wish I had known this 
sooner, for that is my subject to-day." Another 
gentleman of more sense was talking in a similar 
school. The governor of the State was present and 
other officials. And he said : "Boys, it is our fault 
that you are here; it is my fault, this governor's 
fault, and the fault of all these honorable gentle- 
men." 

But severe as we are with the prodigal sons, we 
are still more severe with the prodigal daughters, 
the outcasts of society. But if we knew how many of 
them, when they were innocent and ignorant, and 
strangers in the city, walked the streets for days 
looking for work, till they were decoyed into a den 
by the promise of employment, and then were mis- 
led by artful or artificial means ; if we knew the 
tears they shed in secret, and the efforts they make 
to reform, only to be repelled by society, — if we 
knew all this, we would blame ourselves more than 
them. And if we knew the beautiful and noble acts 
they sometimes do, we would condemn ourselves 
instead of them. Robert Collier tells of a str^t- 



106 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

walker who found a lost child ; she cared for it ten- 
derly, and did not rest till she found its mother. 
Jenkins Lloyd Jones speaks of some of these women 
who were on a train when it was wrecked ; and 
while the other women fainted with fright, or fled 
from the dreadful scene, they tore off parts of their 
clothing, and bound up the wounds of the injured. 
I have heard Anna Dickinson say that she was once 
called to a house of ill-fame, and the inmates said to 
her, "Here is a young girl who has been driven to 
this place by misery, but she is still innocent; and 
here is seventeen hundred dollars — take it, and take 
care of her." The harlot Rahab is placed in the 
glorious galaxy of the Bible heroes, and in the 
genealogy of Christ. Jesus said to such a woman, 
considering her surroundings, "Neither do I con- 
demn thee ;" and he said to her accusers, "Let him 
that is without sin among you, first cast a stone at 
her." Yes, let the woman who marries for money, 
cast the first stone. She is very willing to do it ; for 
she is always the first to spurn her unpopular sister, 
and thus sink her lowen It has been well said that 
the unsocial evil is worse than the social evil. "Man- 
ners make the man," says the Scotch proverb ; the 
way you treat people shows your character. Ches- 
terfield said: "The man who would be rude to 
the lowest woman would justly be considered a 
boor." What, then, shall we say of the woman who 
tramples on her fallen sister ? 

If you are rude to a tramp, the chances are that 
yoif are worse than he. For that matter, the worse 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 107 

he is, the more he requires courtesy ; the less he de- 
serves kindness, the more he needs it. Besides, he 
may prove a blessing to you, in the pleasure of 
doing good, or even in himself. The apostle says : 
"Be not careful [over particular] to entertain 
strangers ; for thereby some have entertained angels 
unawares." And that day is not past. When Mr. 
and Mrs. Garrett were coming West in an early 
day, young and poor, their little stock of money 
was soon spent, and they were dependent upon the 
charity of strangers. If they had been repulsed, 
they might have become bitter against society, in- 
stead of becoming public benefactors when they ac- 
quired wealth. One of our Evanston professors 
keeps a dog to bite tramps. If Mr. and Mrs. Gar- 
rett had called at his house, we might never have 
had a Garrett Biblical Institute, or an Evanston. 
And in these times, when so many are thrown out 
of employment by the closing of shops, the wayfar- 
ing man is especially in need of sympathy and suc- 
cor. What sympathy we have with rich 'tramps ! 
When Mr. Atkins, superintendent of the St. Paul 
road, died, every employee of the company was 
asked to make a contribution to his family. This, 
I am told, amounted to $28,000. Then some of the 
business men were asked to donate. And soon, 
Mrs. Atkins built a mansion on Grand Avenue. 
When Logan died, it was announced that his fam- 
ily was destitute. If such people are destitute after 
having a royal income for thirty years, what hope 
is there for the rest of us? And if it is proper for 



108 THE RULE OF GOLD. 

them to ask for help, why is it inexcusable in the 
pauper? An appeal was made to the public, and 
the people responded. Then came the description 
of young Logan's wedding; his silk hose, alone, 
cost $5. Those socks would have made a dinner 
for a hundred common tramps. The darkest stain 
on American society is the color line. And it is not 
the Mason and Dixon line. Society in the North 
shuts its door against the Negro as firmly as so- 
ciety in the South. 

A Methodist Episcopal Church in Evanston has 
a colored janitor, and he has to live- a mile from the 
church, as no one will rent him a house nearer. At 
Alma, Kansas, I found that the pastor of a North 
Methodist Episcopal Church was preaching to a 
few colored people Sunday afternoons, as they were 
not allowed to come into his morning congrega- 
tions. Indeed, as we are not accustomed to having 
colored people in our homes, we are often more ex- 
clusive than Southern families. A colored woman, 
in Evanston, was working for a lady who was very 
cordial with her ; and she once exclaimed, "O, I 
like you as well as the Southern people." True, we 
send missionaries and teachers to the Negroes of the 
South. But where we spend one dollar in this way, 
the South spends ten, and perhaps a hundred, for 
in every district they maintain public schools for 
colored children. They have not had the credit the\ 
deserve in this matter. I know about the bloody 
troubles between the whites and the blacks in the 
South ; but if the Negroes were as numerous in the 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 109 

North, there would be the same friction, for there 
is the same prejudice. 

When the large colony of Northern people was 
recently organized at Fitzgerald, Georgia, one of 
the rules adopted was, that no colored person 
should enter the community. 

It is astonishing to what an extent this feeling 
is sometimes carried. In the Quaker City, a lovely 
girl, by the name of Anna Shipley, joined a Presby- 
terian Church, She was soon popular in the Church 
and society, was given a class in the Sunday-school, 
and invited to parties. Suddenly it was discovered 
that one of her ancestors was a Negro. She was 
at once dropped by society and the Church. She 
went away broken-hearted, pined, and died. And 
this in Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love, the 
city of William Penn. But these pious people felt 
it their duty to banish the octoroon, because some of 
their boys might be falling in love with her. Has 
God nothing to do with falling in love? If it is 
against his law that races should mix, wljy does he 
give them an affinity for each other, and reward 
them with offspring? For this is never the case be- 
tween different species of animals. The races do not 
differ in blood, but only in color, which is the result of 
climate. The Bible declares that "God has made of 
one blood all nations of men." Moses, the great 
lawgiver, the man of God, married an Ethiopian ; 
his aesthetic sister was shocked, and scoffed at the 
marriage, and she was punished with leprosy. The 
leprosy of prejudice still clings to us, and it cannot 



110 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

be cured except by intermarriage, which has always 
been the great cure for race prejudice. And as the 
blending of colors always produces a new and more 
beautiful hue, the blending of these races will give 
us a purer white, and a more rugged race. As long 
as the blacks remain separate, they will be thorns 
in our sides, and slaves in society. And social bond- 
age is the most painful kind of slavery. Intermar- 
riage is the only means of extermination. And 
how can we develop our negroes into a well-rounded 
American citizens, how can they ever be safe and 
useful members of society, if we do not treat them 
as companions and friends and give them every 
social and intellectual privilege that we /enjoy. To 
talk about shipping them to Africa is absurd. In- 
deed, at the rate they are growing in numbers and 
intelligence, we need to beware that they do not some 
day ship us, and become our rulers. When the 
proud Roman first saw the rough Saxon, he little 
thought that the barbarian would one day be his 
master. But such are the freaks of nature, or rather 
the justice of God. Instead of shipping any of the 
classes I have mentioned, let us use them in man- 
aging the Ship of State. 

We cannot fulfill our peculiar destiny as a people 
without them. "Except these abide in the ship, we 
cannot be saved." We are so bound together that 
the condition of the lowest affects the highest. A 
hundred years ago, Europe was indifferent to the 
filthy state of her prisons. But when the wretches, 
reeking with disease, were dragged from the dun- 



THE RULE OF GOLD. Ill 

geon to the court-room, judges were sometimes 
stricken on the bench, aiffl went home to die. Then 
the prisons were reformed, for the sake of the court 
as well as the culprit. Sir Robert Peel presented 
his daughter, on her nineteenth birthday, with a 
beautiful riding habit, and they rode together in 
the park. Ten days later she was a corpse. For the 
riding dress had been made in a hovel, and carried 
disease to the palace. "No man liveth unto him- 
self, and no man dieth unto himself." As Spencer 
says : "No one can be truly happy till all are happy. 
No one can be truly free, till all are free. No one 
can be truly perfect till all are perfect." How slow- 
ly we learn this lesson ! How selfish we still are ! 

"Alas for the rarity 
Of Christian charity 
Under the sun!" — Hood. 

We are often selfish in our charity. When we adopt 
a homeless child, we want one that is bright and 
promising. Not simply one that needs our help, but 
one that can help us and honor us. But I have 
heard of one lady who went to an asylum to select 
a child, and while the matron paraded before her 
all the captivating ones, she spied a frail little crea- 
ture in a corner. She went to her, took her in her 
arms, and said : "This one looks as though it need- 
ed care the most." 

How little we think about the suffering of the 
world ! how little we know about it ! Victor Hugo 
speaks of some people who have to look into the 



112 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

paper to see how cold it is. The mistress of a man- 
sion raised her window to get a breath of fresh air ; 
and noticing how bitter cold it was, she said to her 
butler, "When you have fixed my fire, go to my 
gardener and see whether theyare out of coal." Then 
she sat down by the glowing grate. When she was 
warm, she said : "John, you needn't go to the gar- 
dener now ; I guess it isn't as cold as I thought it 
was." Shakespeare exclaims : 

" Expose thyself, to feel what wretches feel!" 

If we did feel it, we might have more feeling for 
them. It is the glory of Washington that he shared 
the sufferings of the soldiers and took no pay for 
his services. This is to be a true American. Let 
us return to the simplicity of our fathers. It would 
be more American than running after a dissipated 
duke, and giving him your daughter and $10,000,- 
000 for a title. You plead for tariff because it will 
keep the money at home and help the common peo- 
ple. Then you send your millions and your children 
to Europe, to perpetuate aristocracy. Nellie Grant, 
good and sensible as she was, could be caught in 
this gilded trap, and though she paid for it bitterly, 
there have been plenty to follow her example. I 
sometimes hear a man boast of his contact with roy- 
alty, because he or his grandfather once sat in a 
chair where a prince had sat, or touched his robe 
or was touched by his whip as he rode by in the 
procession. He reminds me of the snob who said, 
with pride, "Why, my father was once kicked by a 



THE GOLDEN RULE. 113 

king." How un-American are the titles which we 
hear in our lodges — Sir Knight, Sublime Prince, 
Grand King, Most Grand Worthy Patriarch! 
Edison is a typical American in his con- 
tempt for this trumpery. When he was abroad 
the King of Italy dubbed him a count and 
decorated him with a golden star. On his return to 
America a friend congratulated him on this foreign 
honor. "Oh yes," he said, after an embarrassed 
pause, "they did give me one of those things that 
}ou stamp butter with. " And our clergy 
have itching ears for the D. D., LL.D., Ph.D., 
and are proud of them even when they are 
not deserved. And how common it is now for our 
newspapers, in referring to prominent families, to 
speak of their little children as Master or Miss ! 

Let us be Americans ; not Europeans or bar- 
barians. But in nothing are we more barbarous 
than in our business. 



CHAPTER XII. 

BUSINESS. 

And the young gentleman of society next finds 
himself in this gladiatorial show. The curse of 
commerce is competition; the cure is co-operation. 
A system under which a large majority fail, as most 
of our business men do, one or more times in life, 
condemns itself. A few grow rich. If this is due to 
their genius for business, then this ab'lity should 
be used for the public good, and not for private 
gain. Everybody knows that the finances of Chi- 
cago are wretchedly managed. If Pullman, Armour, 
and Field are her best financiers, they should direct 
her finances, instead of making fortunes and instead 
of combining, as such men often do, to control and 
raise prices. Let them unite by all legitimate means 
to lower prices ; let them do this, as paid officials, for 
the whole community; and let all those who have 
less business tact work under their direction. There 
are too many men who want a business of their 
own ; men without experience, capital, or skill. In 
their conceit they dream of making a fortune, and 
do not want to be under any one else. But "pride 
goeth before a fall." They soon go down, and 
drag others down with them. They had better 
work for wages; as the Spanish proverb puts it: 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 115 

"An ass that carries you is better than a horse that 
throws you." 

The number of insurance societies among us, and 
lodges, granges, homes for the aged, Church funds, 
and ministers' funds, all show that the commercial 
system — the Church and the State — have not yet 
solved the problem of general comfort ; as I have 
heard Elder Trusdell say, "The people are always 
ahead of the Church and the State. ' ' They have 
learned to help themselves, while the system of com- 
petition supported by Church and State helps the 
few. 

I have said that the system condemns itself ; and 
so say the best authorities, even some of the most 
conservative. The Rural New Yorker recently 
contained a caricature, in which there was a pile 
of bundles labeled, "Trusts and Monopolies." Un- 
cle Sam stood guard over them. Near him was a 
farmer with a pitchfork in hand, and the inscription 
was, "Farmer, prick him with your pitchfork." That 
was a sharp thrust for the Rural. It would have 
been called anarchy in a labor paper. Senator 
Plumb, of Kansas, said on the floor of Congress : 
"The cattle ring in Chicago is the most infamous 
tyranny ; by its tricks it has robbed Kansas of iorty 
million dollars in eight years. " Senator Farwell after 
working on the State Equalization Board, said that 
taxation was so unequal, he wondered the people 
did not rise and sweep the board from the State. 
The Epworth Herald makes this honest confession : 



116 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

"There are men in our churches who make money 
by means which are simply diabolical. " 

The Chicago papers have been accusing the Bell 
Telephone Company of boundless extortion, yet 
these papers uphold the system which makes such 
things possible and inevitable. They also believe 
m the tariff, which enables a few to reap artificial 
harvests. But they do not always believe in it. In 
1880 the price of printing paper advanced 50 per 
cent., in consequence of higher duties. Then the 
papers changed their politics, and howled like an- 
archists about this injustice. 

If the tariff merely covered the difference in 
wages, here and in Europe, it would not be so un- 
reasonable to talk about protection; but when it 
goes far beyond this, it plainly aims at the employer, 
and not the producer. And no matter how high the 
tariff, they never pay higher wages than they are 
compelled to. Mr. Wickes, vice-president of the 
Pullman Company, said in court : "We buy labor as 
we buy potatoes, at the market price." Nathan 
Rothschild is noted for paying low wages. They 
even take advantage of hard times to reduce wages, 
when many are out of employment and begging for 
work. You may say they cannot give the same 
wages in dull as in good times. Perhaps not; but 
we know that sometimes they might pay more than 
they do. 

According to Mr. Pullman's own statements, the 
wages were reduced more than the profits. And he 
did not reduce rents nor gas and water tax when 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 117 

he cut down wages. Many of our States and cities 
have allowed contractors to use the labor of prisons. 
The wages have been about fifty cents a day, and I 
believe as low as thirty-five ; but the products were 
sold at the market price. 

This is protection to American labor! A few 
years since the employees on public works in Chi- 
cago told the superintendent they could not work 
for a dollar a day. So he discharged them, and im- 
ported a gang of Italians from New Orleans. A cer- 
tain wagon company, like some other large concerns, 
have brought over loads of foreigners to work for 
fifty cents a day. When they got their eyes open, 
and struck, they dismissed them, and sent for an- 
other load. I heard a man say that he saw one of 
these workmen, a Dane, eat the lunches which he 
carried to the shop, and he said, "I can swear that he 
had the same bones three days for his dinner." 

According to Mr. Blaine, there is not as much 
difference in wages, here and abroad, as we think ; 
for the cost of living is less in Europe, and still less 
in Asia. You may ask, then, Why do these people 
come here? Because this is a newer and less popu- 
lous country, with larger opportunities. The coun- 
try makes the difference in wages, and not Con- 
gress. Even here wages are higher in one section 
than another under the same protection. I've 
heard a man in Illinois say, "I can make a dollar 
here as easy as twenty-five cents in New Jersey." I 
would not abolish tariff at once, if I could, for great 
and sudden changes never work well ; but we should 






118 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

not make it higher than necessary. When ninety- 
five per cent of the price of bunting is tariff, it is not 
the most appropriate stuff for making a Fourth of 
July flag. We cannot call it a free flag, especially 
if we are talking to a foreigner. We should re- 
duce the tariff as rapidly as possible, and abolish it 
as soon as we can. That time is coming. 

When the Emperor of Brazil visited St. Louis, 
they showed him the new custom-house, and they 
said, "It is good for four hundred years." "Do 
you think," he exclaimed, "that we will need cus- 
tom-houses in four hundred years?" We will yet 
sing with England, in the words of Tennyson : 

"Fly, happy, happy sail, and bear the press; 
Fly happy with the mission of the cross; 
Knit land to land and waving heavenward, 
With silks and fruits and spices, free of toll, 
Enrich the markets of the golden year.'* 

It must come. It is the logical consequence of 
the past. First, men fought for liberty of person, 
then liberty of opinion, and now they are contend- 
ing for liberty of exchange. The democratic prin- 
ciple must be applied to commerce, as well as to 
everything else. 

Free State, free Church, free Trade, is the con- 
sistent doctrine. Do you think to cut short my 
logic as others do by saying, "Then you must be- 
lieve in free love, too?" I reply, "I certainly do: 
Love is not love unless it is free. I believe that 
marriage should be founded on affection and affin- 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 119 

ity, not on lucre, or lust, or law. It is the curse of 
our marriage institution that it is not wholly based 
on love, but rather on a legal contract. It is well 
known that illegitimate children, as a rule, are more 
healthy, more cheerful and gifted than those born in 
wedlock. Thus Providence protests against the , 
"holy estate of matrimony" which is often cursed 
by commerce and by excess. But the time has not 
come, to tell the truth about marriage, so I'll drop 
the subject with this passing word. But the hour 
has struck for the discussion of free trade. It will 
be a paying policy. Now it is tit for tat. The na- 
tions say to each other, "As you do unto me, 
whether good or ill, I will do unto you." God 
would make men brothers, by scattering his gifts 
over the globe, and endowing them with different 
powers, so that they will be bound together by the 
exchange of goods and services. But we set up bar- 
riers; we even draw a line in the water beyond 
which a foreigner must not fish. But our best men 
know better. The greatest thing that Mr. Blaine 
ever did was his effort towards reciprocity — the free 
exchange of certain articles. Phillips Brooks, by 
a flash of inspiration, called this practice "mutual- 
ism." "Do unto others as ye would that they should 
do unto you," means other nations as well as other 
individuals. For the Golden Rule is the law of na- 
tions, as well as a law between man and man. 
"Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," means 
the neighbor across the sea, as well as the neighbor 
across the street. Thomas Paine said : "The whole 






120 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

world is my country/' and John Wesley, "The 
world is my parish." Marcus Aurelius exclaimed : 
"Before I am a citizen of Rome, I am a man." 

Look out for the man who is always shouting 
patriotism ; if he has no love for other countries, he 
cannot have much for his own, but pretends great 
love for a purpose. Dr. Johnson said : "Patriotism 
is the refuge of scoundrels." An old bachelor said 
to a young woman : "You are the only woman I 
ever loved." She replied : "If you have loved no 
one else in fifty years, you cannot love me." Plato 
and Emerson speak of patriotism as a form of egot- 
ism : too much of it is not to be admired in a na- 
tion, any more than in a person. I did not rejoice 
with others when I heard that the McKinleyBill had 
thrown men out of employment in Europe. And, 
for that matter, you did not gain anything ; for those 
men came here, and underbid our workmen. Bear 
in mind, also, that many of our largest concerns are 
owned in Europe ; so she reaps the profits of the 
tariff, while we pay the extra price. 

The profit system, under which goods are sold 
over and over and over again, for the sake of a mar- 
gin passing from hand to hand, till the first cost is 
doubled and trebled — this, I say, is absurd, and 
should be abolished. The great fortunes are made 
in handling goods, which shows that we pay too 
much for them. When a man produces useful arti- 
cles, or brings them to us, he deserves a good liv- 
ing ; and that is all any man needs. 

The same objection applies to the contract sys- 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 121 

tern. I have heard of a case in London, where the 
city offered a piece of work to a contractor, and he 
figured it at $58,000. The committee decided to 
hire the work done, and it only came to $26,000. 

We need employment bureaus in every city and 
village similar to intelligence offices. While men 
are out of work in one locality, in other quarters 
there is plenty of work, and no one to do it. Often, 
in my travels, people say to me, "We haven't a car- 
penter in this hamlet, or a mason or shoemaker ; we 
haven't a sewing-woman, washer-woman, or nurse ; 
and farmers are often short of help ; while in the city 
people crowd each other to death." There should 
be constant correspondence between the employ- 
ment bureaus, that the city may be relieved of its 
burden and the country of its need. People are 
often lured to the city by false advertisements. Em- 
ployers advertise for a hundred men, when they 
only need ten, so that they will have plenty of 
applications, and the men will underbid each 
other. Thus the city soon becomes over- 
crowded. Many would go into the country if 
they knew where to go. It is said that people 
will not leave the city; but I know that many 
would leave if they were sure of work. A lady 
of my acquaintance in the city found a place for 
a poor family on a farm, twenty-five miles distant; 
they went gladly, and have often thanked her for 
her service. 

Wants should govern the market, not ' 'supply 
and demand." For what you call demand is arti- 



122 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

ficial, and not natural; it depends on money, and 
not on wants. A thousand people may be perish- 
ing for the grain that is rotting in your granary, 
but if they do not have the money to buy, you say 
there is no demand. 

The political economy of Adam Smith is not 
in accordance with democratic government or the 
Golden Rule. 

When I speak of wants, I mean the needs of 
body, mind, and heart. Policy, as well as philan- 
thropy, demands that every citizen should be com- 
fortable, intelligent, and virtuous. If any do not 
make themselves so, society should make them so, 
in exchange for their labor. Then business would 
be religion; it would not be called secular, but 
sacred. And by giving help to the weak, we give 
strength to ourselves, and safety to society. Thus, 
the kingdom for which we pray would come. 

1 • Heaven builds on wants and on defects of mind, 
The joy, the peace, the glory of mankind; 
Bids each on other for assistance call, 
Till one man's weakness grows the strength of all." 

— Pope. 

"I must be about my Fathers business," said 
our professed Leader. The business of life is to 
save the world — to save it from selfishness in every 
form. We speak of business as though the thing 
to be busy about was making money. • Our busi- 
ness is to make men, not money; to acquire char- 



THE GOLDEN RULE. 123 

acter, not capital; to be rich in good works, and to 
make men happy. As Lowell says: 

" The world was made for man, not trade." 

It is the glory of our Government that to re- 
alize these blessings we need not change its form, 
but only its administration. Some amendments 
might be required, but the Constitution provides 
for these. Then let us have better government. 



S© 



CHAPTER XIII. 

GOVERNMENT. 

I am on dangerous ground now; so I will 
intrench myself behind the strongest men. Who 
is the world's greatest thinker? Plato. He points 
you to his divine republic. It is well called divine, 
for it is totally different from all human govern- 
ments. Yet it was an anticipation of the Golden 
Rule, in which we all believe. Sir Thomas More, 
one of the wisest men of the last four hundred 
years, re-echoes the divine republic, in his Utopia. 
He says: "I agree with Plato, in a community of 
all things. Only by settling all on a level can a 
nation be happy; this cannot be till property is 
abolished." Who has the clearest head of modern 
times? Shakespeare. He says: 

' ' Distribution shall undo excess, 
And each man have enough." 

And Tennyson asks: 

1 'Ah ! when shall all men's weal be each man's care ?" 

As to the founder of our Republic, it is said 
that Washington never did a public act with a 
private end. He worked for the good of all, and 
without pay. True, he did not distribute his prop- 
erty; for under the system of competition he was 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 125 

compelled, like you and me, to protect himself. 
But he did not make it his object to accumulate 
property, and he used much of what he had for 
the public good. When Franklin was advised to 
take out a patent on a useful invention, that he 
might realize a large revenue, he replied it would 
be contrary to his principles; that the public should 
have the benefit of these things as quickly and as 
cheaply as possible. 

If you want Scriptural authority, listen to 
Moses: "The land shall not be sold forever, for 
the land is mine, saith the Lord." In the year 
of jubilee sounded the joyful trumpet, ' 'proclaiming 
liberty throughout the land." A purchase of lands 
or houses among the Jews was merely a rental, 
which expired at the jubilee, and it could be 
redeemed much sooner; usury, which we call in- 
terest, was a crime; a portion of the crop was left 
in the field for the needy; and when the stranger 
passed through the land, he was allowed to pluck 
the fruit, as Jesus and his disciples did. If he were 
walking about Asia or Africa to-day, he would have 
the same liberty still; but in Europe or America, 
he would be arrested. And mark you, the trumpet 
sounded on the day of atonement. We say much 
about the great atonement that was made for us; 
but we need also to make an atonement for each 
other by proclaiming a jubilee. Then shall we 
realize the meaning of the word atonement — at- 
one-ment — bringing all claasses into one har- 
monious whole; It is often said that Jesus did 



126 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

not deny the right of private property. Neither 
did he deny the divine right of kings. Indeed, 
he said: "Render unto Caesar the things that are 
Caesar's." Yet you claim that free government is 
the outgrowth of his teaching. He said: "I have 
yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot 
bear them now; but when the Spirit is come, he shall 
reveal them." That Spirit is among us, reveal- 
ing the law of love as never before. If Jesus were 
here to-day, do you think he would uphold our 
commercial and social ideas? Would he keep mil- 
lions of dollars in his vault, deck himself in splen- 
dor, and live in luxury? Would he not again say, 
"Ye know not what Spirit ye are of?" In telling 
my Christian friends what difficulty I find in trying 
to collect my dues from my debtors, I ' ve often been 
astonished to hear them say, "Why do n't you sue 
him?" How many believe in the gospel, who do 
not believe in practicing it. A lawsuit may some- 
times be necessary under our combative system, but 
it should be felt as a painful necessity, and not as a 
sweet satisfaction. 

But if Jesus did not deny the right to property 
which was already acquired, it is plain that he did 
not believe in property itself. He said: "Lay not 
up for yourselves treasures on earth. " He made no 
effort to acquire property. And you know what he 
said to the young ruler and to Zaccheus. I find no 
fault with any man for owning property or trying 
to increase it, if he does it with justice. I admire 
him for it. Under present conditions, he must do 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 127 

it. I am not attacking individuals, but that system 
of competition which makes us barbarians instead 
of brothers. It is a relic of barbarism, which re- 
mains among us as slavery did until recently, and 
as the liquor-traffic still does. How often we are 
pained and ashamed because we cannot treat our 
felloWs or our friends as we gladly would ! And 
must sometimes thrust them aside in self-defense. 
It is the Christian's greatest trial that he cannot 
keep the Golden Rule. 

He reads that the early Christians had all 
things common; and this, by the way, is the best 
indication of the teaching of Christ in respect to 
property. His immediate followers had a commu- 
nity of goods; ' 'neither called any man anything 
his own." In time, through mismanagement, this 
grew to a great evil in the Church. Multitudes 
took advantage of it; thousands of idle and 
shiftless people have always hung to the skirts 
of the Church for support; but this was not the 
fault of the gospel. Jesus denounced the slothful 
servant, and commended the man who used and in- 
creased his talents. Even the prodigal is repre- 
sented as having an occupation, instead of beg- 
ging. Paul plainly says: "If any man will not 
work, neither should he eat." Too much has 
been said about the blessedness of alms, and too 
little about the sacredness of work. We pride 
ourselves on the number of our charitable insti- 
tutions. They are pointed to as a sign of Chris- 
tian civilization, but they are a discredit rather 



128 THE RULE OF GOLD. 

than a credit to us; a sign of misgovernment 
and neglect on the part of the State and the 
Church. Those countries that are the worst 
governed and the most superstitious have the 
largest number of charitable institutions. Italy 
and Turkey are full of them. 

Christendom has maintained too many such 
asylums. They should be workshops, at least in 
part; and as far as possible support themselves. 
Mohammed exhorted the faithful "to give one- 
tenth of their income to the poor." It was well 
meant; but Pericles, with greater statesmanship, 
gave alms where it was necessary, and work where 
it was practicable. Of late, Joseph II. of Austria 
showed himself wise and good by granting pensions 
to all over sixty years old. Frederick the Great 
formed settlements of his destitute subjects; gave 
them grain for food and seed; gave them horses 
for plowing; built houses and factories, and in 
many other ways distributed public money among 
the people. And they in return overflowed his 
coffers. It is said "he left the richest treasury 
that any monarch in Europe ever possessed." 
You say that "we do not want a paternal gov- 
ernment/ ' No! It is too paternal now. I do 
not believe in the soup-house, but in the work- 
shop. I know a blind man who has a large fam- 
ily, and will not do even what work he could. I 
have often suggested employments which he could 
follow, but he thinks them too hard or unpleasant. 
He appealed to the town for help; they told him to 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 



129 



go to the stores and order what he needed. The 
first month he ran a bill of seventy-five dollars. 
So they were obliged to limit him to twenty-five. 
Gibbon says that in ancient Alexandria work was 
provided for all; even the blind and the lame. 
Every idler, whether you call him loafer, tramp, 
or pauper, should be employed, for the country's 
sake as well as his own sake. The disreputable 
poor house should be called the county home; 
should be made home-like, be in charge of good 
men and women, and be surrounded by gardens 
and shops. The Milwaukee county-house, I am 
told, answers well to this description. Let us have 
more of them. But the Soldiers' Home at Mil- 
waukee is a public nuisance, and a reproach to 
the Nation. It poisons the moral air for miles 
around. I have heard men say they would not 
take the best lot as a gift in that vicinity. Whole 
regiments of men, most of whom are able to do 
some work, are lounging about the grounds or 
prowling around town, spending their time and 
their pension in vice; and at the same time are 
furnished with a fat living at the expense of the 
people. Millions have been wasted in pensions. 
They have been given to thousands who did not 
deserve them, and to rich men who did not need 
them. They boast of their patriotism, but they 
want to be well paid for it. The soldier who was 
injured or who did good service should be well re- 
warded; but a patriot will not accept more than he 
deserves and needs. 



130 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

No, we do not want the Government to be 
paternal, but it should be fraternal. And that 
is what we claim it is. "We believe that all men 
are born free and equal, and have a right to life, 
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.' ' I simply 
ask that we stand to our colors, and practice what 
we preach. People sometimes say to me, "If you 
do n't like this country, why do n't you get out of 
it?" I reply that I like it better than any other. 
I like it so well that I think it is worth fighting 
for. You despise the copperhead who ran away 
to Canada, and applaud the soldier who fought 
his countryman for the sake of his country. I 
like Andrew Jackson's maxim: "Ask nothing but 
what is right. Submit to nothing wrong." And 
in his farewell to the people, he said: "You no 
longer have cause to fear danger from without; 
but it is from within, from cupidity, from corrup- 
tion, from disappointed ambition, and the thirst 
for power, that factions will be formed and liberty 
endangered." The last word of Washington's 
Farewell Address is "danger." That time of dan- 
ger has come, and should we not consider its cause 
and cure? As Emerson says: "What is a man born 
for, but to be a reformer, imitating nature, which 
is every day new?" 

Lincoln said: "The Declaration of Independ- 
ence is a promise to lift the burden from the 
shoulders of every man." Have we kept that 
promise? When I was a boy, I heard the Declar- 
ation read on the Fourth of July, and heard the 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 



131 



orator declare that this is the land of the free. 
Yet at that time we held millions of slaves, but we 
did not think of that. It is well to think. Are 
we lifting the grievous burden from the shoulders 
of every man? We convict ourselves whenever 
we speak of a "laboring man." What do the 
word9 literally mean — a struggling man, a suf- 
fering man? that Uncle Sam would arise in 
his grandeur and goodness, and say, "Come unto 
me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I 
will give you rest/ ' We "spiritualize" the gospel 
too much. We say, "Blessed are the poor in 
spirit;" but in Luke it reads: "Blessed be ye 
poor" — poor in pockets as well as in spirit. Again 
we quote: "Blessed are they that hunger and 
thirst after righteousness;" but in Luke it is; 
"Blessed are ye that hunger now, for ye shall 
be filled" — hungry for bread as well as for right- 
eousness. It is the mission of the gospel and of 
America to fulfill this promise. And our Gov- 
ernment has done much, very much, in this way, 
by the homestead law, by harbors, roads, and 
public buildings, especially by the school-house 
and post-office. Let the good work go on, till 
it takes in the railroad and telegraph, and until 
cities control their street-cars, gas and water 
works, and their mercantile business. We should 
form colonies on vacant lands, if need be, at pub- 
lic expense. They will pay for themselves in 
money and in public morals. Carlyle said: 

"Nine-tenths of the earth is crying, 'Come and 



132 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

till me, come and reap me.' " This is especially 
true in America. We talk about over-popula- 
tion, when we could sustain twenty times our 
present numbers. Let them come; let industry 
be encouraged and labor honored, and America 
will be "the joy of the whole earth.' ' Then the 
European peasant will revive the song that he- 
used to sing: 

"To the West, to the West, to the land of the free; 
Where the mighty Missouri rolls down to the sea; 
Where a man is a man who is willing to toil, 
And the poorest may gather the fruits of the soil." 

Countless thousands could be employed in 
improving our country roads, dredging rivers 
to aid navigation, and banking them to save us 
from floods, and developing our boundless re- 
sources. We can not ignore this matter; if we 
do not lift the crushing burden from the people, 
they will become a burden to us, as beggars, 
criminals, and rebels against the Government. 
The old fable tells us that the overladen ass en- 
treated the horse to take part of her load; the 
proud horse kicked the ass and went his way; 
the ass fell with her load and died. Then the 
master put the burden on the horse, and laid on 
the dead ass besides. It is better to employ 
people than to support them. During the Irish 
famine, when England was slow to come to the 
relief, some of the people committed petty crimes, 
that they might be put in prison and be fed. The 
criminal often fares better than the honest man 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 133 

who asks for nothing but work. One of the 
strikers at Homestead sublimely said: "We have 
a right to work." Mr. Depew, at the World's 
Fair, exclaimed: "Jesus planted the cross of hope, 
and Columbus the cross of opportunity.' ' That 
does not mean the opportunity to be President, 
but to be independent. It is ludicrous how much 
we hear about the chance that we all have to be 
President, when only one man in seventy mill- 
ions is elected President once in four years. The 
colored preacher said to his Sunday-school: "Per- 
haps every one of you will be President yet." 
Talent, genius, beauty, always win, whether in 
America or Africa. Men have gone from the 
hut to the palace, as well as from the log-house 
to the white house. The English sovereigns 
sprang from a tanner; the mightiest of the Popes 
was the son of a peasant. Tennyson sings of the 
king who married a beggar-maid. Charles II, 
who restored aristocracy, enthroned an orange 
girl. But these are exceptions in every land, 
and who cares ? 

The ordinary man is not sighing for the 
White House, but for the comfort of his own 
little house. He is not w T ondering whether one 
of his boys will be President, but whether he him- 
self can give bread and books to his boys. 

Putting men on the public domain and on 
public works would relieve the congested state 
of the city. We pride ourselves on the number 
and size of our cities. They are too numerous 



134 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

and too large. Within the last fifty years we 
have been building railroads which were stimu- 
lated by Government grants, and building fac- 
tories which were encouraged by tariff. Rural 
districts have been deserted and villages have 
vanished, and a few centers have grown to un- 
healthy proportions; grown in stench and crime. 
They have also grown in much that is beautiful 
and good; but the larger a city becomes, the more 
evil there is in proportion to the good. The in- 
tense life of the city burns itself out through over- 
work and over-indulgence. The children do not 
take the places of their parents. The city would 
run to waste but for the fresh life that flows in 
from the country. Dickens illustrates city and 
country life by pointing to the beautiful Thames 
before it reaches London, and to the foul stream 
that issues from the city. These great centers 
are convenient for the purposes of trade, and 
conveniently arranged for living; but it is sacri- 
ficing humanity to commerce, and health to lux- 
ury. A German writer says: "We will go on 
till every family has a piano and scrofula.' ' 
When Ruskin was asked to subscribe towards 
a park for the poor, he said: "No, I do not be- 
lieve in huddling all the houses together, and 
putting a thousand acres into a park; give every 
house a little park, with fresh air and flowers.' ' 
The capitalist prates to the people about the 
advantages of living in the city; but he lives in 
the suburb, and has a country-seat, where he 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 135 

and his family spend the summer. The homely 
old proverb says: "What's good for the gander 
is good for the goose." Father McGlynn wittily 
remarks: "We hear a good deal about the fel- 
low w T ho stole the goose from the common, but 
how about the gentleman who stole the com- 
mon from the goose?' ' City life is bad for both 
rich and poor. With all its stir, it is shallow; 
with all its refinement, it is artificial; its manners, 
its method, its monotonous work, make ma- 
chines of men. Even Mr. Armour, who we think 
can do as he likes, says that he goes to his office 
every day, and goes through the motions, not 
because he wants more money, but because he 
can not help himself. He must tread the old rut, 
round and round, till he drops — like the old 
horse that was driven for years on the mill- 
sweep, when at last he was useless and turned 
into the pasture, he went round in circles in the 
old accustomed way. And the beastly scramble 
of city life leaves little time for meditation or 
friendship, reading or nature. All our better 
feelings are blunted. The great souls of the 
world have never been formed in the city. Mat- 
thew Arnold says: "If the England of to-day, the 
England of coal and iron, of ships and shops, 
should sink into the sea, she would not be re- 
membered by the future: it would only remem- 
ber the England of past, when there was 
literary and spiritual life." 

While w; are under the present system, Uncle. 



136 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

Sam could do much for the relief of the people, 
through the bank, securing depositors by his 
bond; and giving loans at a low rate of interest 
on good security. The Bank of Scotland has 
followed a practice of giving loans without secur- 
ity to reliable young men, to start them in busi- 
ness. It has proved a public as well as a private 
benefit. We do not realize the benign influence 
of the bank. By its exchanges between men in 
all parts of the world it helps to make them 
brothers; by its manifold aids to business, and 
by its guardianship of savings, it gives confidence 
to trade and tranquility to life. I know of 
nothing else in this world which so much re- 
sembles Providence as the , Bank of England. 
Watching over the people in every panic and 
in every time of want; upholding the credit of 
the world, and from generation to generation 
securing property on which at present human 
happiness so largely depends. Still the banking 
system is in need of improvement. Our National 
banks are not National; because they exist for 
private speculation. The Banker should merely 
be the agent for the Government, and Uncle 
Sam be the real banker. Such a system would 
bind the citizen to his Government; "for where 
your treasure is, there will your heart be also." 
To have good government, it must be ad- 
ministered by good men. Think of such a sen- 
ator as O'Brien of the 6th ward in Chicago, the 
patron of gamblers and pugilists! And he is not 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 



137 



a solitary figure. When a political Convention 
meets in any city, it is a harvest time for the 
breweries and brothels. It is said when the 
Legislature meets at Springfield, a car-load of 
prostitutes arrive from Chicago. 

Common saloonkeepers buy themselves into 
city and State offices. What do these men care 
or know about the public needs, and what capac- 
ity have they for dealing with these needs? As 
Burke so well expressed it; "A great empire and 
little minds go ill together." "Politician' ' is now 
a synonym for corruption. Politics is a trade, 
and the professional politician works at it "for 
what there is in it." He betrays his country as 
Judas betrayed his Lord. Senator Ingalls 
has been frequently quoted as saying: "The 
idea that the Decalogue or the Golden Rule 
has anything to do w T ith politics is an iridescent 
dream." Whether he was stating his doctrine, 
or merely describing a condition, it matters not 
in this connection, for I am speaking of a con- 
dition. But in condemning the politicians we 
condemn ourselves. They are as good as we 
want them to be, for we elect them. We are the 
real rulers. When James K. Polk retired from 
the Presidency, he said: "I have ceased to be a 
servant. I shall again be one of the sovereigns. ' ' 
Let each of us guard his sovereign right as 
becomes a king. If we want good rulers, we 
must elect good men. It is astonishing how 
many men do not vote for what are called minor 



138 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

offices. At the election of a judge in Chicago, 
not one-fourth of the vote was polled. But im- 
portant as it is to go to the polls, it is more im- 
portant to go to the primaries, where the ticket 
is made. FeW of the best men attend; and 
what is the result? Evanston is called a model 
community, free from the corruptions of Chi- 
cago, yet even here, low and unscrupulous men 
get into office by bribing other unprincipled men 
to go to the primaries and vote for them. Some- 
times there are more votes in the hat than there 
are men in the room. But the slate is made up; 
and then good men think they are doing their 
whole duty by going to the polls and voting a 
straight ticket. But they are punished for it, by 
the taxes they have to pay as the price of cor- 
ruption, by the insecurity of property, and by 
every form of bad government. It means some- 
thing to vote. The very word is most signifi- 
cant, for a vote means a vow. In Switzerland 
they often vote at Church, receiving the ballot 
with the same reverence as the sacramental 
bread. 

We need the vote of good women as well as 
good men. They can not be represented by their 
husbands, especially when they have no husband. 
One person can not take the place of another 
in human, any more than under the Divine gov- 
ernment. Every one of us must give an account 
of himself at the judgment-seat of election. Bad 
women are prompt to do this. I have been in 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 139 

Western towns where women vote, and found 
that the worst men were sometimes elected, with 
a larger percentage of votes from women than 
from men, because the ladies thought they would 
be out of place at the polls. It reminds one of 
the Italian proverb: "So good as to be good for 
nothing." They are like the little girl who said 
that when she was grown up she wanted to marry 
either a doctor or a preacher, she was not sure 
which. They asked her why "Oh" she said, 
1 'because if I marry a doctor, I can alway be well 
for nothing, and if I marry a preacher, I can be 
good for nothing* ' 

We have too many of that kind of women 
and men, who think they would contaminate 
themselves by going to the primaries and the polls, 
and so let the country go to the dogs. 

If the ballot-box is an unclean thing, we 
must all take hold and clean it, or not complain 
of corruption. 

We must also protect ourselves against the 
sharks who buy votes at the polls or in the halls 
of legislation. A careful student of our politics 
declares that our laws are made by four per cent 
of the people, who largely control elections and 
more largely control legislation. 

To realize these ends, we must put principle 
above party. You may say that your party rep- 
resents the best principles; but think about the 
principle first, and then see whether your party 



140 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

embodies it. Some of us do not think at all. 
Like the partisan in "Pinafore," who said: * 

"I always voted at my party's call, 

And never thought of thinking for myself at all." 

Ex- President Hayes says: "He serves his 
party best who serves his country best." Some- 
times the best service you can render to your 
party is to defeat it, that you may reform it. A 
party has no more right to exercise absolute rule 
than one man has. It is simply another form of 
despotism. Washington said: "Party spirit is 
our worst enemy; it is a frightful despotism that 
builds on the ruins of liberty.' ' 

Even the sainted Lincoln was required by his 
party to stoop to acts which were unworthy of 
him; as, in giving to Simon Cameron appoint- 
ments for which he was wholly unfitted, and 
accepting from him a sham letter of resignation 
dated prior to his removal. I do not refer to this 
as a reflection on Lincoln, but to illustrate the 
power of party spirit, which crucifies the best 
men and sacrifices the country. They cry "Give 
us Barrabas, and crucify Christ." Away with 
this political bigotry and selfishness! 

By these various means our Government 
would become fraternal. Then the world would 
not be a battlefield, where brother contends with 
brother, but a home, where brothers cherish each 
other. Do you think I am dreaming? Well, 
P m in good company. It has been the dream of 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 141 

the best and wisest men. It has been the favorite 
song of the poet, and in poetry we all admire it, 
and exclaim, "How beautiful !" Every heart 
thrills to hear words like these:: 

''Then none were for a party, 
But all were for the State, 
Then the rich, man helped the poor man, 

And the poor man loved the great. 
Then spoils were fairly portioned, 

And lands were fairly sold, — 
O, the Romans were like brothers, 

In the brave days of old.'' — Macaulay. 

Lowell goes still further in "The Vision of 
Sir Launfal." How proud we are of that noble 
poem! We point to it as the high- water mark 
of America literature; yet if a politician should 
advocate its doctrine, or if a preacher should 
proclaim it from the pulpit, he would be con- 
sidered insane. The last four lines, which sum 
up the whole, give the keynote: 

"The poorest serf on Sir Launfal's land, 
Has hall and bower at his command, 
And there's no poor man in the north country 
But is lord of the earldom as much as he." 

But this is not wholly a dream. It has often 
been tried, and not wanting. I have already no- 
ted Judia, Alexandria, and the early Romans. I 
will give one more example: 

When the white man came to America, he 
found the people of Peru enjoying peace and 
plenty — free from the anxieties of wealth and 



142 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

the pangs of poverty. When a young man mar- 
ried, he was provided with a piece of ground; 
and his neighbors helped him build a house. His 
land was increased as his family grew, and de- 
creased as the family diminished. When the 
people had tilled their land in the spring, they 
went in companies to work the field of the aged, 
the sick, the widow, and all who were under any 
disadvantage. Then they went to the lands of 
the Inca, or ruler, and as they worked they sang 
their national airs. 

No wonder that such a people loved the songs 
of such a government. The grain and wool were 
laid up in public storehouses, from which the 
people were clothed and fed. No one was al- 
lowed to be idle. Unusual industry was honored 
by special rewards. Thus the stimulous of com- 
petition, within proper limits, was recognized 
and encouraged. Laborers were changed from 
place to place, and from one kind of work to 
another, that they might not be overworked or 
injured in health. Prescott says: "There was not 
a rich man or a poor man in Peru." Some of the 
Spanish writers even declare that there was no 
want, discontent, or vice, and that the Peruvian 
was superior to the moral man of Europe. 

Voltaire says: ' 'Idleness, vice, and want are 
the causes of misery/ ' The government that 
banishes these, banishes misery. Victor Hugo 
exclaims: "With misery, what will also disap- 
pear? Revolutions." These are the only means 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 143 

of safety. Common comfort is as necessary as 
common education. 

Peace and safety will come to the Nation 
when she gives peace and safety to every citizen. 
What a burden of anxiety and anguish it would 
lift from every heart! Jefferson said, with his last 
breath: "I resign my soul to God, and my daugh- 
ter to my country.' ' O, that every father could 
trust his Government like Providence, and feel 
that whatever comes to him, accident, sickness, 
or death, that his family is safe! It is cheering to 
see that, more and more, the Government is 
tending in this direction, by multiplying the pub- 
lic institutions already noticed. Time was when 
nearly everything depended on the Church — 
general education, benevolence, and health. This 
work is now largely done by the Government. 
Mr. Stead therefore asserted that if Christ came 
to Chicago, he would first go to the city hall, as 
he could best reform society through its civil in- 
stitutions. Still, there remains a great work for 
the church. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE CHURCH. 

"He hath anointed me to preach the gospel 
to the poor, to heal the broken-hearted, to pro- 
claim deliverance unto the captive, to set at lib- 
erty them that are bound." Such, according to 
its Founder, is the mission of the Church. The 
Salvation Army to-day best represents the primi- 
tive Church. Its presence among us proves that 
the so-called Church is not fulfilling its mission. 
How many preachers are anxious to preach to 
the poor? Do they not consider the amount 
of their salary as the measure of their success, 
and does not the Christian public judge them by 
the same standard? 

It is becoming more and more common for 
down-town Churches to move into the suburbs, 
away from the masses. I have heard of one such 
Church that moved from a certain quarter "be- 
because there were so many wicked people there. ' ' 
We hear them say, "If those children come to 
this Sunday-school, I'll take mine out." The 
children soon catch this spirit, and do not want 
to sit with "those children." We try to quiet our 
conscience by establishing a mission for the peo- 
ple, which they take as an insult, and so the mis- 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 145 

sion sometimes does more harm than good to 
the cause. Dr. Strong, secretary of the Evan- 
gelical Alliance, says: ' 'There are Churches in 
the East in which there is not a single laboring 
person.' ' 

I have heard him speak of some working girls 
who wished to join a certain Church, and the 
pastor said: "Why, you would have no society 
in my Church." But there is another side to this 
picture. Dr. Strong, by his very denunciations, 
shows that he is the friend of the people, and 
Dr. John Hall, who has perhaps the wealthiest 
Church in America, has working people in his 
membership, and visits them frequently. He has 
an understanding with the families of his parish 
as to the hours when he can call on their hired 
help. And the people have no warmer friends 
than Washington Gladden and Father McGlynn; 
but such men are too scarce. How often even 
village pastors are ridiculed by their brethren 
if they merely show courtesy to the outcasts of 
society! If Jesus w r ere among us to-day, he 
would be condemned as of old for being the 
Friend of the people. "The common people 
heard him gladly," and they revere him still, even 
those who do not attend Church. At a socialistic 
meeting in New York, when the Church was 
mentioned, the crowd hissed; when the name of 
Jesus was spoken, they applauded. 

"Jesus saw the multitude scattered abroad 
like sheep without a shepherd, and was moved 



146 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

with compassion toward them." The word "pas- 
tor' ' implies that the minister is to be a shepherd 
rather than a preacher. We have plenty of men > 
aside from preachers, who can give addresses 
and write essays; but we want some one in every 
community to be the counselor and the friend 
of all; especially of those who need him the most. 
In the old state Churches, the minister was the 
father of the parish, and the ministry was not 
looked upon merely as a profession, the means of 
working one's self up in the world. 

Through this neglect of the Church other 
organizations spring up — lodges, temperance 
societies, and Young Men's Christian Associa- 
tions; but too often they soon forget their mis- 
sion, and become mere clubs for mutual enter- 
tainment. I heard a secretary of a Young Men's 
Christian Association remark: "We take an in- 
terest in all classes of young men, except tramps 
and dead-beats." The very classes that need 
attention most. Among these outside organi- 
zations is the labor party. Ministers, as a rule, 
do not sympathize with it; they eulogize compe- 
tition and toast the capitalist, until these relics 
of barbarism and all the greed and crime which 
are its fruits, are associated, in the popular mind, 
with Christianity. This is the stumbling-block of 
the Church throughout Christendom, and in 
heathendom as well. For the pagan associates 
the gospel with the evils of Christian lands. A 
friend of mine said to a Japanese: "Tell me can- 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 147 

didly what has been the influence of the mission- 
ary in Japan." The Japanese turned and put his 
hand on the door-lock, saying, "What is this for?" 
"Why, to secure my door against intruders and 
thieves." "Well," said the heathen, "before the 
missionary came to Japan we needed no locks, 
now we have them everywhere." Here is the 
point: when men come into these primitive coun- 
tries from Christian lands with their idea of mak- 
ing money, getting rich, and being successful, 
it leads, in the better class of natives, to the chase 
after wealth by the methods of business and the 
tricks of trade; and in the idle, desperate class, 
it leads to common stealing. This is not because 
of the gospel, but in spite of it. Still, the mis- 
sionary believes in competition as sacredly as in 
the gospel. He does not believe it because he 
is a missionary, but because he belongs to the 
mighty Caucassian race, which is the slave of its 
own powerful passions. 

These passions have given the world its best 
and its worst, and the preacher must again assert 
the old doctrine that "the love of money is the 
root of all evil. " If the Church worships money, 
she will perish with her money. Josiah Strong is 
high authority on this point, and he declares 
that "if the Church persists in her present course, 
bowing to wealth and caste, she may go on mul- 
tiplying churches, sending out missionaries, and 
sowing the earth with Bibles; but her destruction 
is sure." We need another reformation, one that 



148 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

is based on the Golden Rule. Lincoln said: 
"When I find the Church that is built on the 
Golden Rule, I will join it." And everybody 
would. What a revival there would be! It has 
always been the effort of religion to make men 
brothers. The Jews had a tradition that the 
ground on which the temple stood was originally 
owned and tilled by two brothers. Once, after 
harvest, the older brother said to himself, "My 
brother is young, and can not toil as I can. I 
will give him some of my sheaves." So he went 
out to carry some of the sheaves into his brother's 
part of the field. At the same time the younger 
brother thought, "My brother has a family to 
support; I can spare him some of my sheaves." 
So that night the brothers met, with their arms 
full for each other. On the spot thus consecrated 
by brotherly love, the temple was afterwards 
built. And this is the foundation of the Church 
according to the teaching of the great apostle: 
"Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the 
law of Christ." How many of us are Christians 
according to that definition? I have heard 
Bishop Vincent say: "Here, in my Church, sits 
the man who is worth five hundred thousand dol- 
lars, and there sits the girl who makes shirts for 
fifteen cents. What does he know about her 
burden?" The Epworth Herald speaks of a well- 
known Christian man who recently made four 
million dollars in one year, but who pays low 
wages, and whose son gave a banquet which cost 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 149 

twenty-two thousand dollars. Did the people 
who work for him think that he considered them 
as members of the same body with himself ? 
Preach on that text: "We are one in Christ, 
and members one of another." And also texts 
like these: "Hide not thyself from thine own 
flesh." "If a brother or sister be naked or desti- 
tute of daily food, and ye say unto them, be ye 
warmed and filled, what doth it profit?" "Your 
faith is dead;" "He that giveth to the poor shall 
not lack; but he that hideth his eyes shall have 
many a curse;' ' "Woe to you who add land to 
land, and join field to field." Preach on the year 
of jubilee, and on that wonderful chapter, the fifth 
of Nehemiah, in which that ancient Jew de- 
nounces as unjust and unbrotherly many things 
that we call legitimate and right, and sets a noble 
example to all rulers to share the burdens of the 
people. 

The Church should be open for evening 
school, amusements, and useful entertainments, 
and should give meals at cost price. Much of 
this is being done, but much more remains to be 
done. I love the Church; she has been a blessing 
to me and to millions, but the statement which 
I have quoted from Dr. Strong and the Epworth 
Herald show that there is need of another re- 
formation. 

And when you stand in the pulpit do not 
explain away, all the most beautiful parts of the 
Bible. When you read "Take no thought for 



150 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

the morrow" do not say "Jesus did not mean what 
he said," but say "If we would have one another's 
burden, there would be bread enough and to spare 
for all. If each did his daily duty, the morrow 
would take care of itself. ' ' And when you read 
"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want," do 
not say that David was speaking of his soul but 
rather say the Creator has filled the earth with 
food and if it were used for the common good, no 
one would be in want. 

Not Nature's harshness, man's inhuman greed, 
Is cause of all our wretchedness and need. 

— Prof. C. W. Pearson in Methodism. 

And do not tell men that they must wait 
until they are dead before th£y can be happy. 
But tell them that the kingdom of God is to be 
established here, that the kings of wealth and of 
genius will bring their treasures into it for the 
good of all. This is not encouraging indolence, 
for it is only as each does his part, that the king- 
dom of comfort can come. 

"Then the tabernacle of God shall be with 
men, they shall not hunger any more or thirst 
any more, and God shall wipe away all tears from 
their eyes." To bring in this kingdom of brother- 
hood, is the mission of the church. 

I have now said what I could on the positive 
side of the question; it remains to deal with the 
negative side by answering objections. 



CHAPTER XV. 

OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 

i. It is said that it would be unjust to take 
from any man what he has earned. A young man 
said to me: "My father is a farmer; he has worked 
early and late, and is now broken down with 
overwork and rheumatism, and you want to take 
from him what he has saved.' ' I replied: "Your 
father is the very man that I am pleading for. 
He ought not to be broken down with hard work 
and disease.' ' I believe in comfort for all. The 
object is to give, not to take; and even where 
we would seem to take, as from those who have 
more than they can use, we would give them 
something better in exchange. The capitalist, 
we are told, works hard; harder than many a poor 
man. Yes, he has worked too hard, fighting 
competitors; for, as the French proverb has it, 
"One barber shaves another." And he works 
hard watching his employees all day, and worry- 
ing about them and his property all night. 
Rockefeller could not attend the World's Fair, 
because he could not leave his business. Poor 
man! He had better have had less property, and 
enjoyed that priceless privilege. And how often 
a millionaire is struck down, as Vanderbilt was, 



152 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

with paralysis, which is the result of overtaxed 
nerves! Are there not many more suicides 
among the rich than the poor, in proportion to 
the numbers of the rich and the poor? It shows 
how utterly weary they grow of life. It becomes 
such a burden that they cannot bear it. The 
word ' 'miser' ' means a miserable man. When a 
reporter said to Mr. Pullman, "You must be a 
happy man with all this money. You can have 
what you wish, and do as you like," he replied: 
"My dear young man, the happiest days I ever 
saw were those that I spent as a poor man." And 
when Edison was congratulated on his fame and 
fortune, he said: "The best time I ever had was 
when I was a newsboy.'' The present system is 
as bad for the rich as for the poor. Perhaps it is 
worse for the rich. 

The great Teacher said: "It is easier for a 
camel to pass through the eye of a needle than 
for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of 
heaven." Many attempts have been made to ex- 
plain this declaration, so as to make it more fa- 
vorable for the rich. The common explanation 
makes the eye of the needle as large as a small 
gate, so that the camel can squeeze through. It 
is even said by a satirist that some preachers, for 
fear of offending their wealthy members, render 
the passage, "It is easier for a needle to pass 
through the eye of a camel, than for a rich man 
to enter into the kingdom. ' ' This text will never 
be understood so long as we believe in private 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 153 

wealth. The only solution of the problem is, 
that Jesus does not refer to a kingdom above, 
but to a kingdom in the soul, and affirms that a 
man whose mind is filled with the cares and anx- 
ieties of wealth, and who seeks to satisfy him- 
self by means of material things, can not fully 
enter into the spiritual life; for his mind is pre- 
occupied, and his spiritual taste blunted. As 
Jesus also says: "The cares of this world and the 
deceitfulness of riches choke the word." "Ye 
can not serve God and mammon." As Emerson 
puts it in modern phrase: "When a man gathers 
too much, nature takes out of him what he puts 
into his coffers." There are some great souls 
that are not corrupted by wealth; those whom 
the Bible describes as "full of riches and honor." 
But it is always considered remarkable and a 
great , credit to the man when this occurs. The 
Apocrypha says: "Blessed are the rich who arc 
without blemish." And in the Vedas we read: 
"Blessed is the man who gathers wealth with 
clean hands." But these are the men to whom 
wealth comes, and not those who run after it as 
the object of life. The apostle says of the latter 
class: "They that will be rich, fall into temptation 
and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful 
lusts which drown men in destruction and per- 
dition." If you think this is only a Bible notion, 
then listen to Carlyle. He says: "Such a man 
has lost his soul, so that he has no soul; nature, 
when her scorn of a slave is divinest, often flings 



154 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

him a bag of money, saying: 'Take that, and 
away — that is thy doom!' " 

As to the legal injustice of taking surplus 
wealth from a few for the good of all: you do 
not think it unjust for a people to take a whole 
country from their king, though he and his 
fathers may have devoted their lives to making 
the country what it is. Why does not the same 
rule apply to a money king or railroad king? 
You do not think it unjust that our fathers de- 
stroyed the tea of English merchants for the sake 
of a great cause. Or to come to ourselves, you 
had no scruple about taking the slaves from the 
Southern planters. Temperance people would 
willingly take all the saloons, breweries, and dis- 
tilleries from the liquor power. Yet in all these 
cases you make the proprietor a pauper, while 
co-operation would give comfort in return for 
confiscation, only taking from the rich what they 
acknowledge to be a burden. Is it unjust to take 
honey from the bee, when you leave him what 
he needs for his food? 

But there are many that have wealth who did 
not earn it. What is their claim to it? Simply 
that it belonged to their father? You do not give 
honor to a son because it belonged to his father. 
You do not believe that the son should inherit 
a kingdom simply because his father was king. 
You ridicule the English custom of giving the 
whole estate to the oldest son. His father thinks 
it the proper thing to do, but you say it is ab- 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 155 

surd. The same reasoning will apply to all inher- 
ited wealth. But whatever you may think of this 
point, you will agree with me that children are 
apt to be spoiled by wealth which they inherit, 
and do not know how to use it. Nature is demo- 
cratic. She always exerts herself to level society. 
She seldom allows wealth to remain long in one 
family. When she does, it is at the expense of 
health or character, which are more precious 
than gold. If this does not occur, it is because 
the family has sense enough to make wealth sub- 
ordinate, living above it and using it for the pub- 
lic good. Nature teaches us a lesson, in the fact 
that no animal accumulates a store of food for 
his offspring beyond the period of infancy. Each 
must begin where his parents did. 

The rich will be the greatest gainers by this 
change, not only because of what has already 
been said, but also because " it is more blessed to 
give than to receive." Peabody says that he 
made his first donation to the public merely as a 
matter of principle, but that it came hard. He 
felt as though he were tearing away a part of 
himself, but the more he gave, the more he en- 
joyed it. There is no joy like knowing that you 
are loved by others, and that you have increased 
their comfort. This has been the greatest joy 
of the greatest men. There were those who 
thought that Washington ought to be chosen 
king; that he deserved it. But he thought of 
his country's need, and not of his deserts. Cato 



156 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

shared his stores with the soldiers for the public 
good. The rich men of Athens considered it an 
honor to give public entertainments for the ben- 
efit of the people. Some years ago, when the 
plague was raging at Naples, a company of 
young men invited the king of Italy to attend a 
great exhibition at Venice; he replied, "I go to 
Naples." It may be human to look out for one's 
self, but it is divine to labor for others. Sir 
Walter Scott said of James Fitz James, when he 
relieved and restores the Douglas family: 

"The monarch drank that happy hour 
The sweetest, holiest draught of power, 
When it can say, with God-like voice, 
Arise, sad virtue, and rejoice." 

We are still children, pulling and snatching and 
holding fast to what we have in our hands, when 
our brothers and sisters want a share, crying, "It's 
mine!" The mother is grieved to see her child so 
selfish and ignorant, but she says: "He doesn't 
know any better; but he will learn." Let us put 
away childish things, and learn the better way. 

2. It is said that co-operation would take away 
the spur of industry and manly independence. 
But tell me who is independent under the present 
system? Is not the merchant, the politician, the 
preacher, and every employee, influenced and often 
governed in word and vote by those on whom he 
depends? What can be more degrading? What 
contemptible things even good men do under the 
pressure of competition! Think of the deception, 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 157 

the adulteration, the downright cheating, to which 
men are driven by the desperateness of competition ! 
We often hear a merchant say: "I hate to sell this 
or that article; but I must, to keep up my business.' ' 
The doctor gives medicine for pay, when he knows 
that the patient does not need it. The lawyer de- 
fends a criminal for a fee, when his sympathy is 
with the plaintiff. Many an editor, teacher, and 
preacher says to us in confidence: "I dare not ex- 
press my convictions, because I have a family to 
support." Multitudes are hopelessly in debt. And 
what a cringing, crawling, sneaking creature it 
makes of a man to meet his creditors, and not be 
able to pay them! Manly independence, indeed! 

When we think of all the riggling and wig- 
gling and twisting of which men are guilty in busi- 
ness, we appreciate the point of Josh Billings' sa- 
tire " Real good lies are gettin' scarcer and scarcer 
every day." 

The old fable tells how the wolf and the house- 
dog met in the woods and compared notes. The 
wolf preferred the freedom of the forest with star- 
vation, but the dog was willing to be chained for 
the sake of having a master who would feed him 
well. And most men are willing to be chained 
dogs, for the sake of their dinner. 

"At gold's superior charm, all freedom flies, 
The needy sell it and the rich man buys." 

— Goldsmith. 

Much is said about the inspiring privilege of 



158 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

having one's own house and land; but, as Car] 
Marx observes, ' 'Under the present system a large 
majority can not own anything.' ' So the argu- 
ment turns on the other side. 

It is said that ''poverty makes the man." No! 
A few strong souls rise above it; but even for them, 
it is a long, hard battle. As one of the strongest 
said: 

''Slow rises worth, by poverty depressed.' ' 

— Samuel Johnson . 

But millions are crushed and ruined by it. The 
Bible declares that "the destruction of the poor is 
their poverty. ' ' Yet in the face of this Bible doc- 
trine, the preacher is continually telling the people 
that poverty is a boon. Franklin says: "Poverty 
often deprives a man of all virtue and spirit. " 
How often have I met gifted children whose light 
was quenched by poverty! They were born to 
shine — 

"But knowledge to their eyes her ample page, 
Rich with the spoils of time, did ne'er unroll; 
Chill penury repressed their noble rage, 
And froze the genial current of the soul." 

— Gray. 

Rich men talk about the blessings of poverty, 
but they would not want to be blessed that way 
themselves, and they do not want their children 
to enjoy its benefits. 

Such talk reminds me of the early Spartans, 
who gave their children nothing to eat. so that they 
\vould be obliged to steal their food, and thus be- 



^ 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 159 

come sharp and self-reliant. Where does character 
unfold so beautifully and powerfully as in the free- 
dom of the home ? 

When the child goes out into the world, why 
should he find everything reversed, and soon begin 
to talk about the "cold, unfriendly world." sigh 
for the return of youth; see "the evil days come, 
and the years draw nigh in which he shall say, I 
have no pleasure in them;" losing faith in man and 
in faith itself? As I heard an evangelist say, "In 
these money-making times, God is thrust into sec- 
ond place." So the youth grows weary of life, 
grows gray, wears glasses, and looses his nerves in 
the very noonday of life. He goes on, hunted and 
hounded by competition — goes as if the wolf were 
after him. When a mad dog is running down the 
street, and the children are running and screaming, 
why not say: "Let the dog alone; he is a public 
benefactor, stimulating the minds of the children, 
and teaching them to take care of themselves?' ' 
"No," we say, "kill the dog and let the children 
be happy." And except we be converted and be- 
come again as children in simplicity and faith, we 
shall not enter into the kingdom of peace and rest — 
the kingdom of which our fathers knew more 
than we. 

"Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife, 
Their sober wishes never learned to stray; 
Along the cool, sequestered vale of life 

They kept the noiseless tenor of their way." 

— Gray, 



160 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

"Give me neither poverty nor riches; lest I be 
poor and steal, or lest I be rich and forget God." 
So said the wise man of Scripture, and expressed 
the philosophy of the whole question. The poor 
man is apt to be dissatisfied, and the rich man 
self-satisfied. The poor are inclined to rebel 
against the law of man because it oppresses them; 
and the rich, to disregard the law of God because 
they are in bondage to the laws of society and 
business. God pity them both! Horace happily 
says: "Our fortunes are like our shoes. If too 
small, they pinch us; if too large, they trip us.' ' 
If the rich man's superfluous leather were put into 
the poor man's shoes, both would be more comfort- 
able. The poor admire the rich because of their 
freedom from want, their refinement, and their 
beautiful surroundings; while the rich envy the 
poor because of their health and quiet life. In all 
poetry and fiction, the cottage and not the palace, 
the country and not the town, the yeoman and not 
the prince, have been the ideals of human happi- 
ness. Let the two classes share their blessings 
and banish their curses, and all will be blest. 

If competition be the great stimulus, why not 
trust education to its influence, and let parents pro- 
vide for the instruction of their children from the 
necessity which they see for education? I know it 
is said that this is not a parallel case, that the gen- 
eral welfare depends on general intelligence; but 
that it makes no difference to the public whether I 
am able to buy potatoes or sug&r. I reply, it is 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 161 

just as important that people should be well fed as 
well as taught. For their loyalty, their virtue, and 
their willingness to learn, depend on physical com- 
fort. 

It is a libel on human nature to say that com- 
petition is the great stimulus. The heroes, re- 
formers, and philanthropists, the explorers, in- 
ventors, artists, and authors, have been impelled, 
not by competition, but by the love of their work, 
and the love of man. The love of kindred and 
friends, human sympathy and the hope of heaven — 
what mighty motives are these! yet they are the 
very opposites of competition. 

The necessities of life are perhaps our strongest 
motives. But under co-operation, guarded by the 
Goverment, free from the bane of competition they 
would be still more powerful, and bring comfort to 
all. 

3. It is objected that this view is superficial, 
that the difficulty is in man himself. But circum- 
stances make men, the inner life depends on the 
outer. Men and nations have gone up and down 
according to their conditions. Look at Bohemia, 
Poland, and Italy. They were glorious when they 
were free, but through oppression they have be- 
come the offscouring of the earth. Look at our 
Negroes. How they rose as soon as their shackles 
fell! How their minds expanded, and their charac- 
ters improved, even in the same generations! On 
the other hand, see how the Indians have been 
degraded by oppression. The brothers of Tecumsah, 



162 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

Osceola and Logan have lost their eloquence, their 
courage and all their manly virtues. Civilization is 
the fruit of improvement. When primitive men be- 
gan to make tools of stone and to build with stone, 
they came out of their caves, and lived in the air 
and light. It was the beginning of a new era for 
the intellect as well as for bodily comfort, and the 
stone age was a stepping-stone to a higher plane. 
So again in the bronze age, which gave men still 
better tools with which to surround themselves with 
the conveniences and facilities of life. When they 
began to till the soil and to establish peaceful and 
permanent settlements, civilization made rapid 
strides. The Scandinavian fable tells how, in the 
olden time, a young giantess picked up a stranger, 
set him on her hand, and showed him to her mother, 
saying: "I found this creature tearing open the 
bosom of Mother Earth, and throwing in seed, and 
he said to me, 'I will make her give my family food 
for the winter. ' M And the mother said: "Daughter, 
deal gently with him, for these people will be our 
masters/ ' And they did become the masters of 
Europe. Five centuries ago, when men first put 
chimneys and windows into their houses to let the 
smoke out and the light in, it also lifted the clouds 
from their brains, and let in the light of knowledge. 
It was the dawn of a glorious day, the age of the 
greatest discoveries, inventions, and reformations. 
A few years since, a soap factory was opened in 
Palestine, and the natives who for ages had lived 
in dirt, which breeds disease, which in its turn pro- 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 163 

duces despair, began to clean themselves and their 
surroundings, and this messiah of soap has been 
working miracles there. General Booth believes in 
this doctrine. He says we need soapology and 
scrubology more than theology. It is quite the 
fashion now to talk about the influence of environ- 
ment; then why not apply this thought to our 
political life. 

I often hear preachers say: " You can not re- 
form men from without, but only from within. If 
you want them to be better, you must first make 
them better." I reply, this is true, but, it is only 
half the truth; we must work from without as well 
as from within. John Wesley published his Calm 
Appeal as an address to the American people, call- 
ing on them not to raise up their hands against the 
Lord's anointed, but to pray for the king. And he 
appointed days of fasting and prayer, that the 
American rebels might lay down their arms. And 
in the days of slavery it used to be said: "Preach 
the gospel to the slave-holders, that they may be 
kind to the slaves." But we said: "No; the Divine 
right of kings is absurd, and slavery is diabolical. 
The king or the master may be a good man, but the 
system is wrong. It gives a tyrant an opportunity 
to be oppressive, and the subject has no redress." 
Just so, many capitalist are good men, but many 
others are not, and a system of competition gives 
power to the rich, and not to the poor. Irrespon- 
sible power is always dangerous, and should not be 
tolerated in any form. The difficulty would be 



164 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

more easily mended than we imagine. What benefit 
we have realized in a few years from the Australian 
ballot and from the Civil Service law! This was not 
because our politicians were suddenly converted, 
but because we adopted useful expedients. 

4. If you still insist that equality is imprac- 
ticable and impossible, a rope of sand that will not 
hold together, I rejoin, that is what Europe said in 
regard to our form of Government. But we did not 
think so, and do not yet, and the best things that 
we have are in the line of co-operation. What 
private enterprise works as efficiently, economical- 
ly, and promptly, as the postoffice? If it were in 
private hands, the postage would probably be two 
or three times as high. It is more prompt than the 
telegraph, and works better than the express com- 
panies; when they can not readily find the party to 
whom a package is addressed, they often throw it 
into the mail, and it soon reaches its destination. 
Who can estimate the blessings of the public school? 
But how many children would be educated if it 
were not public? It is the glory of thg Church 
that her doors are open to all; h«r freedom is her 
life. If an admission fee were charged, she would 
have perished long ago. 

Co-operation is the only thing that is prac- 
ticable. The old system would not be endured if 
it did not yield, little by little, to the demand for 
free institutions. Cicero said: "If each should 
grasp for his own interest, society would be dis- 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 165 

solved." But it is also true that our interest is one 
with society. When we work together, we work 
for ourselves. 

You say : ' * God made men to differ. He made the 
rich and the poor." Why not also say, "He made 
the good and the bad, the wise and the ignorant, 
and some must therefore always be ignorant , and 
some bad?" We must take this world as we find 
it, and try to make it what it ought to be. We 
must destroy ignorance, vice, and proverty as we 
destroy tigers, vipers, and vermin. Would you 
remind me that Jesus said, "The poor ye have al- 
ways with you;" then I would remind you that He 
also said, "It must needs be that offenses comes, but 
woe to that man by whom they come." In other 
words, if under existing conditions, some will be 
poor, woe to him who makes them poor, or who 
keeps them so! It is also recorded that He said: 
"Ye are the children of your father, the devil." Is 
that any reason why we should act like the devil? If 
He said to the people of His day, "Ye have the 
poor always with you," does that imply that the 
world is to have them always? I heard a preacher 
exclaim in the pulpit, "Thank God, we have the 
poor always with us!" 

The old doctrines of election and reprobation 
are called blasphemous now, but theological Cal- 
vinism is not as pernicious as this social and politi- 
cal Calvinism — the idea that our conditions are 
fixed and can never be improved, that we have 
reached the end of all knowledge and all progress. 



166 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

How do you know what nature intended? Give 
every man a fair chance, that he may develop ac- 
cording to the working of his own nature, like a 
plant; then if he turns out a cabbage-head, very 
well; but give him the best soil and the best culture, 
that he may be as fine a cabbage-head as possible. 
If some can not rise above proverty, let us see to it 
that they do not sink beneath it. 

Don' t you think that things would work better 
then? That there would be fewer crimes, riots, and 
mobs? I heard Professor Swing's last sermon. In 
closing, he quoted from Virgil: "When the mob is 
throwing stones, if wisdom could appear and speak 
to them, they would listen and obey." Then the 
professor added: "We have the mob; would that 
we had the wisdom!' ' How willing the people have 
been to listen, even when they seemed insa ne with 
rage! 

When Watt Tyler was killed in the presence of 
a hundred thousand rioters, and they rushed on 
with an angry shout to avenge his death, King 
Richard II waved his hand, and they listened. He 
said: "I will be a better leader to you than Watt 
Tyler." They believed him and dispersed, but, his 
promise was no sooner made than broken. When 
Masaniello was wreaking revenge on the tyrants of 
Naples, he could sway the mob by raising a finger, 
because they believed him to be their friend. Wendell 
Phillips says, "Tom Corwin could hold the mob in 
his right hand," for he had a heart for the people. 
They have been altogether too ready to listen to 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 167 

party leaders, and when a man like Moses or Lincoln 
keeps his promise to them, they make an idol of 
him. 

5. It is a common objection to co-operation 
that if all wealth should be equally divided, the 
spendthrift would soon squander his share, and be 
poor again; while the sharper, through skill or fraud, 
would get the money of others, and be as rich as 
before. But such ideas only show how ignorant 
people are in regard to socialism. It is not pro- 
posed to distribute money, but rather, in time, to do 
away with everything in the shape of money. It 
would not be needed then, any more than it is 
now between the members of a family in their 
service to each other in the home; even the mem- 
bers of a society often do not need money in their 
mutual work as fellow-members. As long as money 
is in existence, it will lead to speculation, avarice, 
and selfishness, which are the poisons of society 
and the bane of businesss. 

Nor would property be distributed, but owned 
in common under the guardianship of the Govern- 
ment, and used for the good of all, as their varied 
needs required. Exceptional industry might be 
specially rewarded, if such a stimulus were needed; 
but probably it would not be, as all work would be 
honored and properly rewarded. This would be a 
stronger incentive than we have now, when even 
the idle rich are more honored and better fed than 
the industrious poor. 

Our soldiers marched together as one man, 



168 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

fought side by side at the peril of their lives, suf- 
fered in camp and prison; yet you can not insult a 
soldier more than to tell him he did it for pay. 
That was not his motive, but his country and the 
right. He was fed and clothed by Uncle Sam; 
what little money he received came from him. But 
did he lose his manhood, did he become a baby, be- 
cause he was not driving bargins? No! he was 
ennobled, he exulted in the thought that he was 
preserving the Nation, and that the Nation was 
nourishing him. And under co-operation we would 
all be soldiers — the whole Nation a standing army, 
but working instead of fighting for the good of all. 
All honor is due to the soldier. Still, the love 
of liberty has so often been sullied by the love of 
lucre that we do not yet understand its nature or its 
value to a nation. Look at the great struggles for 
freedom, and what do they reveal? Sir Walter 
Scott says, in substance, "that the feudal barons 
who wrung Magna Charta from King John were 
the most brutal tyrants. They wanted freedom 
themselves, but they trampled upon the peasants 
and burned the Jews." The Protestant reformation 
was supported by Northern princes, who could thus 
refuse to pay tribute to Rome. Charles I lost his 
head, not because he loved the Church, but rather 
because he loved ship money. Cromwell thought it 
belonged to the people; but soon he thought that 
all England belonged to him ! He himself became 
a despot, and seized property to which he had no 
right. Our Revolution was provoked by the ex- 



THE RULE OF GOLD. Ib9 

tortion of England. Doubtless our fathers fought 
for freedom, still they did not free their slaves. 

When men talk about rights and freedom, they 
mean their property rights and personal freedom. 
Goldsmith says: "I have found in every land that 
freedom is only another name for riches.' ' Few, 
very few, have fought purely for the principle of 
freedom. 

Patriotism and property do not work well to- 
gether. But in the better time that is coming, men 
will not be thinking about protecting and increasing 
property, but about helping and improving each 
other. Then we shall see how all men love liberty 
and love labor too, for labor will be the price of 
liberty, and liberty the reward of labor. 

"Freedom, hand in hand with labor, 
Walketh strong and brave; 
On the forehead of his neighbor 

No man writeth 'Slave.' " — Whittier. 

6. The reader may feel that I am misjudging 
the rich, implying that they are not to be trusted, 
and are not as good as the poor. 

I should be sorry to know that I gave any such 
impression. There are many disadvantages in the 
condition of both classes. But poverty in itself has 
no advantages, while wealth has many. The rich 
have the opportunity for culture, for reflection, for 
travel, and thus for enlarged views of life. Accord- 
ingly, in every age, many of the finest and noblest 
natures have been found among the rich. 



170 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

Moses and Buddha were reared in the palace, 
and left the palace to devote their lives to the poor. 
Seneca was one of the richest and one of the best 
men of antiquity. Space would fail me to enumerate 
such philanthropists as Howard, Oberlin, Penn, 
Lafayette, Washington, and Peabody, who were 
as great in goodness as they were in wealth. The 
list of good kings, like Titus and Aurelius, Louis IX 
and Henry IV, Alfred the Great and Joseph II, 
would fill a book. The best manners are still called 
courtesy, showing that they came from the court. 
Among the aristocracy, there are many examples 
like the Earl of Shaftesbury and Count Tolstoi. 
And it is significant that the titled class are called 
noblemen, and the wealthy, gentle-folk. And even 
in our land, where the people are supposed to have 
an equal chance for improvement, we find more 
gentleness of character and refinement of manners 
among the rich than among the poor. Indeed, it 
would be better if all were rich than if all were 
poor; for poverty is always destructive, while wealth 
is only dangerous. 

The vast majority of the best and wisest people 
come from the middle class. This, therefore, is the 
plane on which we all ought to live, safe from the 
giddy height and from the gloomy depth, safe from 
the dangers of wealth and from the degradation of 
poverty. 

It is also suggestive that a rough fellow is 
called a boor. And when the boor is appointed to 
oversee the work of his fellow-serfs, he is often 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 171 

more oppressive than the prince. Solomon, long 
ago, spoke of the severity of the poor man that 
oppresses the poor. And in our own time it has 
been proverbial that a Negro slave-driver is worse 
than his master. But what else could be expected? 
It is the natural fruit of oppression. Cruel parents 
have cruel children; for they are born and brought 
up brutes. When a poor man suddenly becomes 
rich, he is apt to be unbearable; for he has acquired 
the power of wealth without the refinement. 

I condemn no class as such, but the system which 
is a curse to all classes. Let us all be just — the 
rich to the poor, and the poor to the rich; the rich 
to the rich and the poor to the poor. We are all 
wrong. We are all under the rule of gold, and not 
under the Golden Rule. When I say the rule of 
gold, I do not mean the rule of rich, but the rule of 
gold itself, in the hearts of rich and poor. 

You may ask why I then assail the rich more 
than the poor. I reply, because they are in the 
place of power; they have the opportunity, the 
knowledge, the influence, and the means of keep- 
ing the world back, or bidding to go forward; of 
keeping men down or lifting them up. The re- 
sponsibility lies chiefly on them. Therefore, Jesus 
and the prophets attacked the ruling class. If 
some of my expressions seem extreme, I have 
said nothing as severe, by far, as the twenty-third 
chapter of Matthew, the first of Isaiah, or the last 
of Micah; and I have said nothing that is not con- 
firmed by the classic writers of ancient and mod- 



172 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

ern times, whom we all love and applaud. Virgil 
speaking of the universal passion for gold, calls 
it "the accursed thirst." And Tennyson says: 

" Every door is barred with gold, 
And opens but to golden keys." 

But we have become so gospel-hardened or 
case-hardened by our barbarous surroundings, 
that the precious seed falls on the beaten path, 
and is soon crushed by the hurrying feet of trade, 
or it is snatched away by those enemies of our 
souls, who tell us that human brotherhood is 
impossible, but that most of us must be subject 
to masters. But I will stick to the old text: One 
is your master, and all ye are brethern. O that 
we would receive the heavenly seed into good and 
honest hearts, and reap the harvest of universal 
love, and bring in the kingdom of peace and good- 
will! 




CHAPTER XVI. 

OBSTACLES. 

"It can not be done" is the desparing cry, even 
of many who believe that they believe in the Golden 
Rule. But if it ought to be done, it can be done. 
Such is the faith of humanity in progress that it 
has believed in the most stupendous miracles, when 
a crisis seemed to demand them. "Speak to the 
people that they go forward," said the Almighty 
voice to Moses, though the sea was before them. 
They went forward, and went through. But, ac- 
cording to the promise, we have done greater things 
than these. When it was proposed to cross the ocean 
in a steamer, not depending on the winds of heaven, 
a book was written to prove that it was impossible; 
but the steamboat came and brought the book. 
Every plant that my Heavenly Father hath not 
planted shall be plucked up. And surely the pres- 
ent commercial system was not devised by Infinite 
Goodness, for it is a field of briers to every good 
man. You say it is so deeply rooted in all our insti- 
tutions and our very nature that it can not be torn 
up now. "O ye of little faith" and of little knowl- 
edge! L,ook into history, and see how many mighty 
systems have been swept away. 

These worshipers of the money-power remind 
me of the Ephesian mob, stirred up by a silver- 



174 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

smith who said, "Ye know that by this craft we 
have our wealth/ ' and they yelled themselves 
hoarse for hours, crying, "Great is Diana of the 
Bphesians. ' ' And the clerk calmed them with the 
assurance, "These things can not be spoken 
against/ ' But where is Diana now, and her mag- 
nificent temple, more imposing than our Boards 
of Trade? In the dust, as our temples of trade 
shall be. 

The very magnitude of the money-power makes 
me exult, as I defy it; for I know that it must fall. 
Lincoln said: "If ever I feel the soul within me 
elevate, and expand to dimensions not wholly un- 
worthy of the Almighty Architect, it is when I con- 
template the cause of my country, deserted by all 
the world besides, and I standing up boldly and 
alone, and hurling defiance at her victorious op- 
pressors. And here, before high heaven, I swear 
eternal fidelity to the land of my life, my liberty, 
and my love." 

"Onward, onward, onward, ever! 
Human progress none may stay: 
All who make the vain endeavor, 
Shall, like chaff, be swept away.'* 

Hell Gate, in New York Harbor, was blown up 
by a child, who touched the match to the powder 
when her father had laid the train. No matter 
about the weakness of the hand that wields the 
weapon, so that the weapon is almighty. "And 
the weapons of our warfare are mighty to the 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 175 

pulling down of the strongholds of iniquity.' ' 
They shall all be leveled like the Bastile. 

4 'The few shall not forever sway, 

The many toil in sorrow; 
The bars of hell are strong to-day, 

But Christ will rise to-morrow." 

Or, to give you a more simple and natural 
illustration: Often when a seed awakes on its 
resurrection morning, it lifts a stone from its 
grave, and rises into the light. Is truth less 
powerful? 

"Right is might and can not fail; 
Truth is strong, and will prevail." 

"A little leaven leaventh the whole lump." 
So/ as Tennyson declares, "Social truth shall 
spread/' till, as Daniel saw long ago, the Rock 
of truth will break the idol of gold, and grow 
until it fills the whole earth. This is our only 
salvation. "A house divided against itself can 
not stand." In 1858, Lincoln applied this thought 
to slavery, saying: "This nation must become 
all slave or all free." It is equally true that we 
must all become the slaves of capital, or we must 
abolish it. But it will be far more difficult to 
banish financial bondage than it was to abolish 
chattel vSlavery. For that was local, while this 
is interwoven with the whole structure of society 
and with all our interests, and is growing more and 
more dominant. But the very excess of the evil will 



176 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

work its cure. This world is a self-regulating 
machine. When it goes too fast, or too far in any 
direction, it presses hidden springs which restore 
it to harmony. It is true that disease may be fatal 
to the patient, but it improves the health of the 
community. Men die that mankind may live. 
Systems fall, but the world goes forward! 

"O'er the darkest night of sorrow, 
From the deadliest field of strife, 
Dawns a clearer, brighter morrow, 
Springs a truer, nobler life." 

The financial wrecks of the last few years, 
caused by speculation, fraudulent banks, and 
powerful corporations, have made many converts 
to socialism. Many who once denounced it as 
the enemy of society, and lauded competition as 
the life of trade, have since found that competition 
was the death of their trade, and that co-operation 
is their only hope. So the world moves. 

Do I think that things would work perfectly 
if co-operation were adopted! No; nothing works 
perfectly. Our form of Goverment does not, nor 
does the Church, nor the family. Yet what 
unspeakable blessings they are! Competition, sure- 
ly, does not work well. And I grant that the fault 
is not wholly in the system, but partly in the men. 

Co-operation would also be managed by men; 
and men, as a rule, do not differ very much at 
heart. As Burdett remarks: "The population 
of the world is made up mostly of people." I 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 177 

am sure that some of our socialists could not be 
trusted with the public welfare. I know one who 
harangues on justice and equality, and yet is a fiend 
in his family and with his employees. 

I am acquainted with an excellent young man, 
who has been working on a labor paper, and who 
has so often been cut down in his wages and -has 
seen so much of the workings of the office, that he 
has left the concern in disgust, and calls the man- 
agers a pack of thieves. How often in labor meet- 
ings it is proposed to do the very things which 
they denounce capital for doing! And we hear 
them say, "We want our turn." They remind me 
of the little boy who saw his brother take the big- 
gest piece of cake from the plate, and he cried out, 
"You pig, you! I wanted that piece myself." I 
can name one of them who was sent to the Legis- 
lature, and came back with a great deal more mon- 
ey than he could have saved from his salary. If 
some of these men could divide the wealth of the 
country, they would do like the Connecticut Yan- 
kee who planted a patch of potatoes on shares with 
his Dutch neighbor. When the potatoes were 
dug, he said: "Now, Hans, I will divide them into 
two piles. Here is one potato for me, one for you, 
and one for me; one for me, one for you, one for 
me." So he always had two, while Hans had one. 
Some of these men want to be first and last in 
everything. But all this is the fruit of competition. 
Or, in so far as it is natural, it could be overcome 
in time by a humane system. 



1?8 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

Perhaps the greatest hindrance to the cause of 
labor is the lack of union and confidence among 
these men. They differ widely in their moral prin- 
ciples and their plans of action. Their unions and 
combinations are often condemned by others, but I 
think they are both right and necessary. Hiawatha 
said to his people: 

"All your strength is in your union, 
All your danger in your discord." 

In my little efforts and great hopes for human 
progress, my greatest discouragement has been the 
fact that the people who seem perfect, often prove 
to be very imperfect. Sometimes when I hear these 
people talk about their love for man and their ben- 
evolent schemes, I say to myself, "O, if everybody 
were like him or her, what a world this would be!" 
But afterwards, when they betray their selfishness, 
I repeat those words in quite a different sense. The 
psalmist, when tried by his sufferings and the 
wrongs of the world, exclaimed, in those most 
pathetic of all words, "How long, O Lord, how 
long!" And after three thousand years, we still 
have occasion to say, "How long, O Lord, how 
long!" A well-known philanthropist, representing 
several benevolent causes, was standing on the 
sidewalk conversing with another gentleman, when 
a little bootblack came up to him, and said repeat- 
edly, "Shine? shine?' ' The lover of his race was 
so annoyed that he said, "Go away, or I will kick 
you." Humanitarian institutions are often inhu- 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 179 

man. I know a blind man, who, late one night, 
applied for lodging at the Gospel Temperance head- 
quarters in Chicago, and the superintendent said to 
him, "If you are blind, we can't take care of you 
here." And he let him go out in the night to find 
lodging in any den that he could, or in the street. 
The papers have recently exposed an institution 
which called itself the Bethany Home, open to 
friendless children. It has been found that the 
children were sent out to beg and to steal for the 
benefit of the superintendent. The temperance 
hospital has resorted to means of support which are 
simply contemptible. And many a dignified insti- 
tution is a whited sepulcher. I could easily give 
instances, but perhaps I have already been too 
specific. 

Look out for us would-be reformers! Caesar and 
Napoleon called themselves champions of the peo- 
ple, but they used the people as stepping-stones to 
a throne. When Benjamin Franklin was a little 
boy, he was met one morning by a man who began 
to flatter him and say sweet things to him, till he 
got him to turn a grindstone while he ground his 
ax. When he was done, he said, "Clear out, you 
little rascal!" Franklin never forgot the lesson. 
In after life, when he heard any one flatter and con- 
tinually declare his love for the people, he said, 
"He has an ax to grind." I realize all this. Stilly 
under co-operation, when the Government will be 
supreme, will be the guardian of all rights, and the 
custodian of all wealth, the selfish man will not 



180 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

have the same opportunity for abuse; and he will 
not have the same motive, as he will have no occa- 
sion to provide for his future. There is much in 
having a good system, even though it can not be 
perfectly administered; it is the best means of edu- 
cation. Still, an ideal system can be adopted too 
soon. There would be many abuses of co-opera- 
tion, so long as each wants what somebody else 
has. It would not be wise to adopt the system as 
a whole at once; but little by little, beginning with 
those concerns that are used by the general public. 
The social communities founded by Rapp in Penn- 
sylvania, and Owen in Indiana, failed, not only 
because they were local, with all the world against 
them, but also because some of the members joined 
them for personal profit. So long as any one wants 
a community of goods that he himself may be bet- 
ter off, we will not be ready for it; but when we 
all want it that others may be better off, then we 
will be ready, and not till then. 

"There is a Christian communism which says, 
'Mine is thine;' but there is a communism of 
the world which says, 'Thine is mine.' " And 
long before the dawn of Christianity, Plautus 
said, "Thine is mine, and all mine is thine." Some 
of these pagans were far in advance of us Chris- 
tians. Pythagoras said, "Wealth is a weak 
anchor." But we eulogize it as though it were 
the sheet anchor of the "Ship of State," and of 
the "Gospel Ship." Terrence said: "It is a great 
error to suppose that the Government is more 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 181 

firm when supported by force than when founded 
on affection.'' But we believe in force — in capital 
punishment, and in the sword. Some of our lead- 
ing men object to international arbitration, because, 
as they say, "War is a good thing; it keeps up the 
tone of a nation.' ' So much do they enjoy it 
that, when there is no military warfare, they must 
have sham battles, football fights, and prize fights. 
They go long distances and pay enormous fees to 
see these gladiators of the ring. Colleges and 
ladies send congratulations. Men pay absurd 
prices for fighting dogs; and hunting is a favorite 
sport, even with presidents and preachers, — killing 
innocent and helpless creatures. We are still bar- 
barians. It has been said, "You need only to 
prick the skin of a civilized man to find the barbar- 
ian' J Bishop Gilbert Haven exclaimed, with good 
reason; "Much must be done before our Christian- 
ity is Christianized." 

Think of America refusing to give up the 
whisky-traffic in Africa, when the Congress of 
Nations proposed to stop it. Uncle Sam allows his 
seamen in Alaska to buy native girls for rum and 
keep them as mistresses. What stronger proof can 
you have of the greed for gold, than the present 
attitude of Christendom toward Turkey, Armenia, 
and Greece? Each nation is afraid that in case of a 
general interference, another nation might gain a 
commercial advantage. And in our ordinary business 
dealings, the struggle is so deadly that we hear men 
shout as a watchword of trade, "The survival of 



182 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

the fittest." If you can not meet a payment, if 
you can not do a piece of work as well as some one 
else, if you can not compete with the more power- 
ful, you must go down and give place to the 
stronger. 

In this article I have tried to show how we can 
remedy these evils; but I must add that it can not 
be done by force. Violent revolutions have always 
been followed by disastrous reaction. I believe in 
evolution not revolution. Society can only be 
saved by being born again. Force has sometimes 
been of service; but it is only a secondary service. 
It is worse than useless without intelligence and 
virtue. And surely the kingdom of brotherhood 
can not be established by force; we can not reform 
barbarism with barbarism. Nor can it be done by 
making laws against every wrong. We have too 
many laws now. Tacitus said: "The more cor- 
rupt the government, the more laws.' ' They are 
the sign of weakness; just as the worst schools and 
the worst homes have the most rules. It is true 
that public sentiment must from time to time 
crystallize itself in law; but laws that can not be 
enforced, weaken instead of strengthening the 
Government. "It was impossible to save the 
world by law," and it is still impossible. Like 
the Jews and the early Christians, we still look 
for temporal power to establish the desired king- 
dom; but "the kingdom of God cometh not by 
observation." It must come in the still small 
voice of growing knowledge and growing love; it 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 183 

must come as the Babe in the manger, in gentle- 
ness and humility. That Babe is born again in the 
better thought of our age. It is growing in 
wisdom and stature day by day; growing in favor 
with God and man, "and the Government shall 
rest upon his shoulders/ ' It is co-operation, the 
mighty counselor, the prince of peace. And when 
co-operation shall have cast out the demon of com- 
petition, then the offspring of the demon — greed, 
combativeness, and crime — will also go, and the angel 
of peace and love will rule. Let us each do his part 
to speed that time, by kindness, generosity, and 
justice. I need only say justice, for what is called 
kindness and generosity is simply justice. We do 
not say enough about justice; it is the fundamental 
virtue, the foundation of society and character. 
How significant is the word integrity, meaning 
wholeness? The honest man is the whole man. 

"An honest man 's the noblest work of God." — Pope. 

Let us be as honest with the rich as with the 
poor, as honest with a corporation as with a private 
concern. Let us not think of stealing a ride on 
the train any more than stealing a ride in a cab. 

Teach honesty, especially by example, in the 
home, in the school, and in the Church. See that 
your caucus and elections are honestly conducted, 
that honest men are elected, and hold them to 
strict account. Jefferson said: " The art of govern- 
ment is the art of being honest.' ' So the complex 
problem of politics becomes very simple. 



184 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

Let me illustrate justice by three anecdotes: 
Farmer Jones said to Farmer Smith: "If my ox 
should kill your ox, what would you do about it?' ' 
"Why" said Smith, "that's very simple; you'd 
have to give me your ox." "All right'' said Jones, 
"I'm glad it's so easily settled; for your ox killed 
mine this morning; so of course, you'll give me 
yours." "Well, well," said Smith, "we will see 
about that. Probably your ox commenced the 
fight; and my ox was more valuable than yours. I 
am very busy now; after harvest I will look into this 
matter." It makes a difference whose ox is gored. 
A certain man was preparing to take his aged father 
to the poor-house. His little boy said: "Papa, 
where are you taking grandpa?" "O, to a nice 
place. It is just made for old people like him." 
"I am glad," said the little boy, "that it is such a 
nice place. I'll take you there when you are old like 
grandpa, won't I papa?" The man changed his 
mind, and grandpa saw the best days of his life. 
A young slaveholder sat on his horse in the 
field urging on an old slave, and now and then 
touching him up with his whip. A last the 
slave stood up, and said: "Massa, I wish you 
could be me and I could be you a little while." 
The light-hearted master laughed at the droll- 
ness of the idea, and entering into the humor, 
said: "I'll do it; give me that hoe." The slave 
mounted the horse, and began to shout: "Come, 
get along there, you good-for-nothing nigger! 
Faster, faster! pitch in ? you miserable whelp! 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 185 

Take that, you lazy dog!' ' and brought down the 
whip. The master started up: "What do you 
mean, Sambo?" "Why, you is Sambo and I is 
massa. I like it fust rate; how do you like it?" 
"I have had enough," said the planter, and he 
was a humane master ever after. "Put yourself 
in his place," said Charles Reade. Look at every- 
thing from the standpoint of the other fellow. 
What a blessing it would be, if master and serv- 
ant, teacher and pupil, husband and wife, parent 
and child, could sometimes change places for a 
day! When you sit down to your table, think 
of the broken-down farmer and the overworked 
cook who raised and prepared your food; when 
you look at your beautiful clothes, think of the 
poor factory-girls and sewing-girls who made 
them; when you sit before your cheerful fire, 
think of the miners crawling like worms in the 
bowels of the earth; when you admire your man- 
sion, think of the men who cut the timber, living 
all winter in wretched cabins and working in 
snow and storm; and think of the men in the 
quarry, who often meet death in their hard and 
dangerous work. Some stone in your house or 
church may be the tombstone of some ill-fated 
workman. It is strange that the people who fur- 
nish our food often go hungry, that those who give 
us fire are often cold, and those who give us shel- 
ter sometimes have no house of their own. Often 
when we suggest to a man that he ought to help 
a hired hand at some piece of heavy work, or 



186 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

assist an express-man in lifting a ponderous weight 
he says, "I pay him to do it," as though that made 
it right to cripple or kill a man. 'Tut yourself in 
his place." ' 'Whatsoever things are honest, what- 
soever things are lovely, think on these things.' ' 
Thanks to heaven and humanity, we are thinking 
of these things as never before. And so a better 
day is dawning. 




CHAPTER XVII. 

THE OUTLOOK. 

Notwithstanding all that I have said about 
the fierceness of competition and its bitter fruit, 
there are other influences at work — sweet and 
gentle influences, producing other fruit. I said at 
the outset that men, apart from business, are dis- 
posed to be kindly; indeed, the word kindness 
means nature. Shakespeare, the greatest interpre- 
ter of nature, speaks of "the milk of human kind- 
ness.' ' Thus, through the force of nature, 
through the gospel, through experience, and even 
through necessity, there is a growing spirit of 
humanity. It sometimes breaks out in the midst 
of business, like moss among stones or flowers in 
a hedge. Let us pluck a few of these flowers. 
Some years ago a woman borrowed a hundred dol- 
lars of C. B. Far well. She became unfortunate, 
and was not able to return it for nine years. He 
forgot about it. One day, recently, she walked 
into his office with a hundred and fifty dollars as 
principal and interest. He accepted the one 
hundred dollars, but would not take the interest. 
Mr. L,awson, former proprietor of the News, loaned 
one of his carriers four hundred dollars for a year 
without interest. Mr. Armour often gives fifty 






188 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

dollars or more to one of his men when a baby is 
born at the house, or some other emergency arises. 
Mr. Deering frequently makes such presents. You 
may say: "They had better pay proper wages. " 
True; still these presents show that they feel an 
interest in the welfare of their men. You may 
think that it is only a bait to keep the men quite; 
but even if this be true, it proves that they realize 
the power of their employees, and feel the rising 
tide of popular discontent. In any case it is a 
good sign, and I think it springs from sympathy. 
Mr. Childs, of the Philadelphia Ledger, had long 
been in the habit of giving presents to his em- 
ployees, and summer trips and even pensions to 
the aged. Very few people, when they hear 
Madame Patti sing in the grand opera, realize 
what a warm heart beats under those jewels, but 
the peasants realize it who live on her large estate 
in Wales. She often cancels their rent in bad 
years, and in many ways shows that she is a 
friend indeed, for she is always a friend in need. 
The vice-president of the French Republic, at a 
banquet in Berlin, responded to the toast, "Here 
is to the humble poor that suffer." Such facts 
show that the rights of the people are felt, or 
at least are compelling recognition in high 
places. Our last President, Mr. Cleveland, 
has shown himself a friend of the people, 
by recovering millions of acres from railroads and 
syndicates; by compelling the cattle kings to retire 
from the Indian reservations, by giving appoint- 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 189 

ments to men, black and white, outside of his 
party; by economy in the public expense, and by 
all he has said in regard to higher wages and lower 
taxes for workingmen. The present pope, the head 
of the largest religous body in Christendom, is in 
sympathy with the popular movements of Surope. 
Many of our colleges and theological schools now 
have a chair of sociology. In the Preachers' 
Meetings there are many discussions of the labor 
problem. In one of these meetings which I 
attended, it was repeatedly said, "This is the most 
important subject that has come before us for 
years,' ' though during that time there had been 
many papers on theological themes. The late Pro- 
fessor Bennett said: "Polemics is giving way to 
practical questions." Instead of saints' days, we 
now celebrate days that have a political and in- 
dustrial interest — Independence-day, Decoration- 
day, Emancipation-day, Labor-day and the birth- 
days of National heroes. 

Statesmen recognize the rights of the people as 
they never did before. Bismark, in taking a morn- 
ing walk into the country, strolled across a 
woman's garden. She was very angry, and not 
knowing who he was, followed him to the city, and 
called to a policeman to arrest him. The policeman 
seeing it was Bismark, drew back, but the prince 
told him to do his duty. He went with the officer 
to the station, paid his fine, and sent the woman a 
present. Lord Palmerston was smoking a cigar in 
a railway station. The depot master, who did not 



190 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

recognize him, said, "Smoking is not allowed here." 
Palmerston thanked him, and removed the cigar 
from his lips. Some one took the officer aside, and 
whispered, "That is Lord Palmerston. ' ' He went 
back to him and apologized, saying, "If I had 
known it was your lordship, I would not have in- 
terfered.' ' Palmerston replied, "I respected you for 
doing your duty , but now I see you're a snob." He 
felt that he had no right to disregard the rights of 
others. When a crowd was about to take the 
horses from Mr. Blaine's carriage, that they might 
draw it themselves, he would not allow them to do 
it. He has so high a sense of the dignity oi the 
people that he would have been annoyed by that 
old-time ceremony. 

While the rich resent a system of equalization, 
still many of them are so paired by the present in- 
equality that, during the hard times of the last few 
years, many of them have contributed liberally to 
the poor. They have not only parted with their 
money, but often, especially in Detroit and Mil- 
waukee, they have given up vacant lots to the poor, 
to be used for gardens. 

In no previous period were so many pensio'ns 
granted to soldiers and employees. And now laws 
are introduced to pension men who have been 
mained in shops and mills. Why should they not 
be pensioned as well as soldiers? Is not their work 
more useful? For they build up the country with- 
out destroying life and property. In the peaceful 



THfi RULE OF GOLD. 191 

time that is coming, the mechanic will be admired 
more than the soldier. As Carlyle exclaims: 

4 'Tools, not arms!" 

The contract system is already abolished here 
and there. Co-operation is instituted in many 
localities. The rolling-mills at Bay View, Wis- 
consin, have long been paying the workmen ac- 
cording to the profits. The city of Glasgow has 
ceased to collect taxes, and pays its expenses 
with the income from public works. I am told 
that the wages of the employees have not been in- 
creased. Still their rents will be lower, and every 
poor man who owns his home is greatly relieved. 
The great co-operative stores in France and Eng- 
land have been a signal success. The good order 
and happiness of the communities where these ex- 
periments have long been tried, is the best argu- 
ment for co-operation. So my dream about the 
blessings of this system is not all a dream. 

What heavenly work is done to-day by the 
Associated Charities, the Settlements in our cities, 
the Fresh Air Mission, the Flower Misssion, the 
many Homes for the helpless, free dispensaries, and 
free libraries — harbingers of a better time! 

"How sweet a scene will earth become, 
Of purest spirits, a pure dwelling-place!" 

— Shelley. 

The cause is marching on. What victories it has 
won since the time of Edward III! Under him, 



192 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

"the father of English commerce/' it was enacted 
that every person under the age of sixty who had 
no employment should labor for an} 7 - man who 
offered him service, at fixed wages, and if he left 
his employer his wages were forfeited. Even at 
the beginning of the present century, a labor union 
was denounced by politicians as anarchy and by 
preachers as heresy. Not many generations ago, 
children six years old worked all day in the factories 
of England and if they fell asleep at their work, 
they were struck with rods to keep them aw T ake. 
About a hundred years since, the local preachers of 
the Wesley an church of England, laboring in shops 
and mines, being workmen themselves, stood up 
with their comrades, and loudly proclamied the 
righteousness of their cause. This made the cause 
respectable and respected. iVt last, men like John 
Stuart Mill and John Bright declared the right of 
w r orkmen to combine for mutual protection. If 
they had never stood up for themselves, and stood 
by each other, they would still be serfs. Within 
the last few years, through their persistent efforts, 
wages have risen, and the hours of labor have been 
shortened. Even strikes, though often ill-advised 
and detrimental to the strikers, have served a pur- 
pose. They show employers that they must give 
proper compensation, or they can not depend on 
their men. 

The progress and dignity of our cause is proved 
by the large space given to it in all our periodicals. 
And in all our colleges there are men, like Professor 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 193 

Bemis and Professor Ely, who advocate its claims. 
Some of these labor organizations are char- 
tered, and can bring suit against those who vio- 
late the rights of the people. A friend has told 
me of a hired girl whose mistress removed to 
Boston, and had not paid the girl her wages. The 
matter was put into the hands of the Woman's 
Protective Association, and the wages were col 
lected in Boston. Yet those who are not informed, 
continually assert that these societies accomplish 
nothing. They have achieved sublime results. 
They have not only elevated the poor, but lifted the 
world to a higher plane of thought. The socialists 
of France and Germany, in some of their Conven- 
tions, have clasped hands, pledging that, in case of 
war between the two nations, they will not fight 
each other. They will no longer be the tools and 
fools of kings, and be shot down to gratify their 
ambition. What does this mean? That the great 
standing armies of Europe, which draw millions pf 
men and money from the nations, shall be dis- 
banded and return to useful service. 

"The world will turn a brighter page, 
And enter on her Golden Age, 
When wasting wars forever cease, 
And all her arts are arts of peace." 

Thus these socialists, who are called infidels, 
set the Christian world an example, bringing in 
the time when the sword shall be beaten into the 
plowshare and the spear into a pruning- hook. It 



194 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

reminds us of the time when the early Christians 
were called atheists, because they did not believe 
in Jupiter and Mars. Socialists do not believe 
in the god of war or the god of mere power, but 
in the God of love. Even in the terrible strike of 
1894, what brotherly love the strikers showed 
among themselves, many of them giving up good 
situations to stand by their comrades, and those 
who had money sharing with those who had none! 
As on the day of Pentecost, they were gathered 
with one accord. Perhaps the spirit that fell on 
these "brotherhoods" was the beginning of a new 
dispensation. I have heard many good people, 
who do not belong to the laboring class, like Miss 
Addams, of Hull* House, for example, confess that 
when they attend labor meetings and lodges, they 
find a spirit of earnestness and fraternity which 
they do not always see in the Church. A prom- 
inent Church member said to me: "I wonder how 
it is that we have pleasanter times in the business 
meetings of the lodge than in the board meetings 
of our Church?' ' Perhaps in our very midst a new 
Church may be growing, silently and beautifully, 
as the temple of Solomon was built. 

Let us give you a few instances to illustrate the 
spirit of this movement, and you can judge for 
yourself whether it is Christian. A young 
plumber in Chicago heard a workman say that his 
boss had discharged him, as there were too many 
hands. The plumber went to the employer, and 
asked him if he would not give his place to the 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 195 

man he had discharged, as the latter had a family 
to support. The employer replied: "What is the 
matter with my keeping you both?" A workman 
who had saved one hundred and fifty dollars gave 
it to a comrade to start him in blacksmithing. 
Another laborer met a companion who was going to 
pawn a watch to raise a few dollars. He said to 
him: "I'll give you more for the watch than you 
can get at the pawn-shop; and if you want to re- 
deem it, you can have it at the same price." 
A policeman in Chicago told me that one 
night he found a man taking planks out of the 
sidewalk in the prairie, on the West Side. He 
arrested him, but the man told him with tears that 
he had been out of work for months, and could not 
buy fuel for his family. So the policeman, at the 
risk of losing his position, let him go. Thus they 
bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of 
Christ. When the People s Church, at Oskaloosa, 
Michigan, was dedicated, hod-carriers and Negroes 
took part in the exercise. It is the principle of 
that Church that all its members should indeed be 
members of one body, and Mr. Ingersoll has said "if 
he joined any Church, he would join that one." 

Those who are called the enemies of the gospel 
are often its best friends; or to say the least, they are 
not far from the kingdom. Comte, in his philos- 
ophy of humanity, preaches the gospel of good- will. 
He and Herbert Spencer will one day be studied 
in our theological seminaries. The chair of Soci- 
ology will grow till it crowds out the chairs of 



196 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

Hebrew Exegesis, and Systematic Theology, which 
are useless incumbrances of the school. This is not 
leaving the gospel behind, but going back to the 
gospel. 

These commotions are not an occasion for 
alarm, but for rejoicing — a sign of the good time 
coming. They are not war-drums announcing 
destruction; but, as in Ireland at the time of the 
famine, they are joy-bells, greeting the ship that 
is coming to our relief. I have heard of a man 
who was running with all his might, and two 
satchels, to catch a boat. He saw that it was a 
little distance from the landing; but with a tre- 
mendous effort, he leaped into it and fell to the 
floor. The passengers asked what he meant by 
such a performance. "Why" he said, "I didn't 
want to get left." "You silly fellow, M they an- 
swered; ''didn't you see that the boat was coming 
in?" Yes, my friends, the good time is coming; so 
let us take heart and be happy. 

You think me extravagent. You say that no 
reform can come from such coarse and ignorant 
men as most of the socialists are. It is the old 
sneer, "Can any good thing come out of Naz- 
areth?" "Thou hast a devil!" We are shocked 
to think how Jesus was misjudged; but perhaps 
we are misjudging some good men to-day. No 
doubt, most people think that Parsons, who was 
hanged in Chicago, was a hard and heartless man; 
but some good men who knew him think other- 
wise. A professor in one of our largest universities 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 197 

told me that he went one Sunday to hear Parsons, 
and while the anarchist was speaking, his baby boy 
toddled up to him; the father took the child in his 
arms, and held him for a long time while he was 
addressing the mob. The professor said: "I never 
saw anything more beautiful." Parsons was driven 
out of the South because he was a friend of the 
Negro when he came to Chicago, and befriended 
the slaves of capital, he was hanged. Yet let us 
remember that, though he attacked the abuses of 
the Government, still he had so much faith in the 
justice of the Government, and was so faithful to 
his friends, that he voluntarily gave himself up to 
the law, and asked to be tried with his comrades. 
He was martyr; and no martyr ever died more 
calmly, or had more faith in the final triumph 
of his cause. And the professor said: "If Jesus 
should come among us now, these men would be 
the first to follow Him, for He would be just the 
kind of a leader they would like." Are you 
shocked? Then you would have been shocked 
if you had lived in the time of Christ, for, as 
Victor Hugo says, "It was the rabble that followed 
Jesus." Claudius, the gay young Roman, in 
"The Last Days of Pompeii," said; in reference to 
the early Christiains: "These Nazarenes will effect 
nothing, for there is not a gentleman among them." 
The great apostle said: "Ye see your calling, 
brethren; not many wise men, not many noble, 
after the flesh, are called." The best of them 
wanted Jesus to call down fire from heaven to 



198 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

destroy the vSamaritans. Jesus said to the 
Pharisees, the best class of people in Jerusalem, 
4 'The publicans and harlots go into the kingdom 
before you/' and this does not imply that they 
were better than the Pharisees, but only that they 
were more ready for a change, because they had 
nothing to lose and everything to gain. 

Reformations can not come from the ruling 
class, for all their interests and associations are 
bound up with existing institutions. These in- 
stitutions are sacred to them and sufficient for 
them. The top is comfortable. Reform must 
commence at the bottom, where the pressure is. 
Water begins to boil at the bottom; all growth 
begins at the bottom, and works upward. Ne- 
cessity is the mother of invention, and this is as 
true in morals as in mechanics; indeed, to-day, 
mechanical invention creates a demand for new 
political devices; for labor-saving machines are 
throwing so many men out of employment that the 
whole industrial system must soon be re-adjusted. 
When we can produce as much in six months as 
we consume in a year, it is plain that something 
must be done that all may still be employed, and 
employed at living wages. 

As the invention of the cotton gin confirmed 
the institution of negro slavery, so to-day, the 
invention of machines, is in danger of enslaving 
the whole laboring class. This can only be averted 
by shortening the hours of labor or providing more 
employment, to meet the changed conditions. 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 199 

All improvement is the result of necessity. 
Coleridge observes: "A child learns to speak from 
the necessity he feels." So with the world. 
Every reformation has its period of infancy, when 
it creeps and falls about, is mischievous, and hurts 
itself; it stammers incoherently, and men do not 
know what it means; but mother nature under- 
stands it, and nurses it hopefully, saying to her- 
self, "It will soon learn." 

All reformations begin with the malcontents. 
Read the description of Davids first army, the 
fathers of the Hebrew state, with whom David 
commenced his career of raising the kingdom of 
Israel to its highest point of glory: "Every one 
that was in distress, and every one that was in 
debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered 
themselves together unto him." The Methodist 
Church to-day, in its wealth and power, does not 
remember that its first adherents were called 
"Wesley's ragged regiments." And I have already 
remarked that Columbus's crew was chiefly com- 
posed of criminals; other men could not afford to 
run the risk of such an adventure; so these reckless 
men gave us a New World. And thus it ever is. 

We build the tombs of the prophets; but if we 
had lived in their day we would have stoned them. 
We call the Puritans and German reformers heroes; 
but if we had lived in their time we might have 
called them criminals. They went through Europe 
demolishing churches, convents, castles, and 
palaces, destroying the most valuable works of art, 



200 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

slaughtering, hanging and burning their victims, 
scattering families, sometimes separating the 
mother from her children. Sir Walter Scott makes 
heroes of the outlaw chiefs, and every reader ad- 
mires Roderick Dhu, when he declares to his Saxon 
lord the Highlander's vow: 

"To spoil the spoiler as we may, 
And from the robber rend the prey; 
The Gael, of plain and river heir, 
Shall, with strong hand, redeem his share." 

Or to come down to our own time, John Brown 
took property from the slaveholders in Missouri, 
and gave it to the Negroes, "in order," he said "to 
give them the wages of which they had been de- 
frauded." Our anarchists are moderate compared 
with those of the past, and their acts are often 
exaggerated; for example, in the strike of 1894, a 
carload of dead horses was standing at the Union 
Depot. One of the Knights of Labor told me that 
they were anxious to have the train leave the city, 
and requested the railroad company to move it, but 
they left it for many hours, that the stench might 
fill the nose of the city, and be charged to the 
strikers. In many such ways they have sought to 
make the striker a stench in our nostrils. 

These men are not always wise in their de- 
mands; but we must be careful that we do not 
judge too soon. Let time decide. Fifty. years ago 
the Chartists tramped the streets of I^ondon, 
clamoring for popular rights. They were de- 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 201 

nounced as absurd and insane; still nearly all their 
ideas have since become laws, — laws which are the 
glory of the nineteenth century. When Daniel De- 
foe was put in the pillory for publishing his inde- 
pendent political pamphlets, the crowd in the street 
strewed roses before him and hung garlands on the 
frame. Who were the wiser, the ignorant people 
or the great officers of the government? We all 
applaud those "pamphlets now. The people are 
wiser than we think. The Latin proverb, "The 
voice of the people is the voice of God," has often 
proved itself true. And they are kind as well as 
wise. You may point to the people of France, in 
the Revolution, as an instance of cruelty; but the 
best men of that day believed that France, though 
frantic, was kind. Robert Burns, the kindest 
heart in Europe, sent four cannon to the 
Revolutionsts. The great-hearted Washington 
sent them expressions of sympathy. He looked 
beyond their mistakes and their cruelty to the 
cause of the Revolution. He knew that the very 
kindness of the people, in their madness, had 
led to cruelty. I, in common with every blind 
person, have a warm spot in my heart for those 
Revolutionists. It was one of them who opened the 
first school for the blind; and they laid the 
foundation for many of our humane institutions, 
"By their fruits ye shall know them." "Judge not 
according to the appearance." 

Milwaukee is the city of beer, the city of for- 
eigners, of socialitst, of Catholics, and of Sabbath 



202 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

desecration. Wisconsin has no hang law, and for- 
bids the reading of the Bible in her schools; yet 
where in the Union do you find a more sturdy, 
steady class of people than in Wisconsin, or where 
do you find a city more quiet, clean, and comfortable 
than Milwaukee? And it is said that there is no 
other city in America where so many people own 
their own homes, and so many do business with 
their own money. We worry too much about this 
world. She has a wonderful way of taking care of 
herself. 

The labor movement is bound to win. We 
had better open our hearts to it, and our halls 
and Churches. It is often condemned because 
its committees sometimes meet in saloons. Where 
can they meet? It is the history of every reform- 
ation that its first converts met in caves and 
catacombs. Saloons are the retreats of the city. 
Christianity itself was born in a cave. ' 'There 
was no room for them in the inn." and there is no 
room to-day for a labor meeting in the great inns — 
the Palmer House or the Leland. But tell ire, do 
the politicians who meet there use less liquor than 
the labor committee in the saloons? It is well 
known that the casks are piled high in the great 
hotels at the time of a political Convention. 

The labor party is the hope of the future. 
Reform can not come from the old parties. As 
Vice-President Wilson said, ' 'Parties never reform 
themselves." And the people will not believe the 
politicians much longer. Lincoln said: "You can 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 203 

fool part of the people all the time, and all the 
people part of the time, but you can't fool all the 
people all the time." They will at last see that 
they must again take things into their own hands, 
and cure the disease by removing the cause; not by 
picking off a scab here and there, nor by poulticing 
a boil, but by renovating the whole system by 
internal remedies. We laugh at the simpleton in 
the old story, who finding that his clock did not 
keep time, took off the hands, carried them to the 
tinker, and asked him to fix them so that they 
would go right. But we are just as stupid if we 
think that society can be regenerated by any external 
means. It will never work right till it is taken to 
pieces, and put together right. In the immortal 
words of Sumner, "A thing is not settled till it is 
settled right." In this work the people may not 
alw r ays proceed according to law; for they will be 
governed by necessity, which is said to know no 
law, but which is, in reality, the only law — as it is 
so well expressed in the motto of Missouri: "The 
welfare of the people is the highest law." Or, as 
Emerson says: "The highest virtue is always 
against the law; the State may follow how it can, 
as Olympus follows Jove." Then, in the words of 
Lincoln: "The Nation shall have another birth of 
freedom. It will not be a Government of the rich, 
by the rich, and for the rich; nor a Government 
of the politicians, by the politicians, and for the 
politicans; but, indeed, a Government of the 
people, by the people, and for the people." 



204 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

The world will enter on a new era, the Golden 
Age, whose law will be the Golden Rule. It is the 
glorious day which the prophet saw when he said: 
"They shall not plant and another eat; they shall 
not build and another occupy; but they shall plant 
a vineyard and eat thereof themselves they shall 
build houses and dwell therein." "They shall 
hunger no more nor thirst any more, and the in- 
habitants shall not say, I am sick." There are 
people now who have never been sick, hence no 
one need be. Dr. O. W. Holmes says: "Every 
disease can be cured if it is taken in hand five hun- 
dred years before birth." Proper marriages and 
proper care of health will exterminate disease. 

When men shall be born right and live right, 
they may continue to live for centuries. Some 
birds have lived for hundreds of years, elephants 
four hundred, and whales, according to Cuvier, 
a thousand years. When we shall live as simply 
and peacefully as they, we maylive as long. Then 
we will have the advantage of the accumulated 
knowledge and ripe experience of centuries. 
Cicero said, "Things go so badly in this world be- 
cause men die so young," when they have scarcely 
learned how to live. Famine will be banished by 
the free transportation and distribution of food, by 
irrigating deserts, by making rain, and by fertiliz- 
ing exhausted lands. Not only will all waste be 
put back into the soil, but there are in rocks and 
mines inexhaustible supplies of potash, phosphorus, 
ammonia, and nitric acid, which are the richest 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 205 

fertilizers. And it is said Edison thinks that the 
growth of plants can be stimulated by electricity. 

But in the future we will not depend wholly on 
the soil and seasons for our food, but we will make 
it chemically by combining the requisite elements. 
And it will be superior to our present food, for it 
will be free from the coarse elements which the 
body does not require, and which it must eliminate 
as excrements. It will only contain what is needed 
for nourishment. When our food is manufactured, 
and the work which is now done by animals shall 
be done by machinery, domestic animals will no 
longer be bred, and wild animals will be exter- 
minated, which will leave more food and more 
room for man. Besides all this, as men rise more 
and more above the animal plain, they will require 
less and less food. This will also be an intellectual 
benefit, for when the stomach absorbs less of the 
vital force, there will be more for the head. Then 
studying will not be as irksome as it is now; ed- 
ucation will be the pastime of life. And the 
object of culture will not be success in business or 
society, but character; not simply self- gratification, 
but usefulness to the world. 

It is a hopeful sign that we are beginning to 
look upon the world as one. Time was when men 
shut themselves up in castles; then in walled cities; 
then in exclusive nations. But now 7 the nations 
begin to realize that they need each other, and 
that their interests are one. There will come a day 
when there will be one race, the human race; one 



206 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

religion, the religion of love; one language, the 
English language; one money, our decimal money, 
if any at all; and one Congress. There will be no 
King, no President, no Senate. Each nation will 
still have a congress of representatives, who will 
act as a committee in minor matters, but all impor- 
tant laws, after being passed by this body, will 
be referred to the people for ratification or veto, 
after the manner of the Swiss Referendum. But 
in addition to this, there will be an International 
Congress, like the Greek Amphyction, to which all 
matters between nations will be referred. 

We are on the eve of another reformation , 
more radical and practical than that of Luther. 
"The just shall live by faith!" was the trumpet 
peal with which he woke the world; but Bible 
scholars now translate that text, "The just shall 
live by his faithfulness,'' and that is the keynote 
of the new reformation — faithfulness to each other 
and to every trust. The messiah of this kingdom 
has not yet appeared. We that write and speak 
now are but the voice of one crying in the wilder- 
ness, "Bring forth fruits meet for repentance; now 
the ax is laid to the root of the tree, and every tree 
that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be hewn 
down. Every mountain shall be brought low, and 
every valley shall be exalted. The crooked shall 
be made straight, and the rough ways shall be. 
made smooth. Let him that hath two coats impart 
to him that hath none, and let him that hath meat 
do likewise. Exact no more than is your due; do 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 207 

violence to no man, and be content with your 
wages.' ' Yes, be content with your wages. Still, 
for the sake of the future, agitate, educate, orga- 
nize, vote, and live to speed the better time. There 
may be one standing in our midst who shall be the 
great deliverer, and there may be ''some standing 
here who shall not taste of death till they see the 
kingdom" of co-operation and peace. The eight, 
eenth century broke the power of kings; the 
nineteenth broke the yoke of slavery; and the 
twentieth will break the bondage of labor. Then 
labor will be pleasure, and business will be sacred; 
money will not be "filthy lucre," but a golden 
bond that will bind men together. Emerson says, 
in substance: " We have so defiled money that we 
can not speak of it in the parlor without an 
apology. If we used it nobly, we could speak of it 
as we do of roses." 

When, like the early Christians, we shall have 
all things common, and no man shall call anything 
his own; when we shall think that it is more 
blessed to give than to receive; when each shall 
esteem other better than himself, in honor preferr- 
ing one another; — then the gold and the paper in 
our money, like the gold in our rings and the paper 
in our love-letters, will be beautiful and sacred 
with sweet associations. Finally, when co-oper- 
ation shall be universal, money will no longer be 
needed. And when, under the social system, every 
man is sure of the supply of his daily wants, and 
has no fear for his future or the future of his 



208 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

family, all temptation to dishonesty and stealing in 
every form will be gone, as well as the temptation 
to sell injurious goods for the sake of a living. 
And when every man shall be required to work, 
and will be glad to do so, because all labor will be 
light, all work honored and well rewarded, then 
the vices of idleness will also vanish, and evil will 
at last be overcome by good. 

America is the star to which the wise men look 
as the herald of this redemption. Daniel Webster 
exclaimed: " If freedom fails in America the knell 
of popular government will be sounded throughout 
the earth." 

Emerson says: "America appears to me to be the 
last efforts of Divine providence in behalf of man- 
kind." ' Gladstone declares that America, with her 
vast territory, her varied resources, and free 
government, has the basis for the most magnificent 
empire the world has ever seen. 

I once heard Fred. Douglass speak of the grow- 
ing spirit of freedom and humanity in America, and 
he exclaimed: "This Nation will become too great, 
too grand, to do a mean thing." 

The World's Fair was a prophecy of all this. 
It was glorious, benevolent, and cosmopolitan — 
glorious in the display of the ripest fruits of genius, 
and the mighty achievements of mankind; benevo- 
lent, in the large contributions made to its success 
by the stockholders and directors, showing that 
their motive was not profit, but the honor of Chi- 
cago and America, and the enjoyment of all who 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 209 

came. If their object had been gain, they would 
not have done so many little things for the comfort 
of all who entered the Fair, and they would not 
have maintained, several miles from the grounds, 
those magnificent Congresses, with their long series 
of lectures by the ablest men, without a penny* s 
expense to the hearers. It was also benevolent in 
the good nature and good order of the great crowd, 
and the harmony that prevailed from first to last. 
It was cosmopolitan, in giving an equal chance to 
all nations, races, and tribes, in their high appre- 
ciation of each other's products and character, 
and in the unbroken brotherhood which existed 
throughout the six months. The greatest thing on 
exhibition was the spirit of the people: and it filled 
me with hope for the future. 

"Coming events cast their shadow before.'' 

— Campbell, 

Or, if it seems inappropriate to speak of "the 
White City" as a shadow, let us say the rising sun 
sends a beam before. The World's Fair was a 
microcosm of the fair world which m en will one 
day see. In the meantine let us do the best we 
can, and make the most of what we have. 

Let the poor man remember that the advantages 
are not 'all on the side of wealth. Many a rich 
man has spent all his money for health; but no 
poor man would part with his health for a mint of 
money. Health is better than wealth; and the 
poor, as a class, have more rugged health than the 



210 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

rich. It is proverbial than the poor are happier 
than the rich, free from the anxieties and the guilt 
of wealth, and free from the slavery of fashion. As 
Goldsmith says of the poor man: 

"His best companions, innocence and health; 
And his best riches, ignorance of wealth." 

Emerson says: "The greatest men and the hap- 
piest have been poor men." Lincoln belonged to 
"the poor white trash." Columbus once begged 
for bread. Yet their minds were as calm as they 
were great. Mozart and his wife were so poor, 
and yet so cheerful, that they sometimes danced to 
keep warm. As we have sat among silks and 
jewels in a grand concert hall, and listened to the 
symphonies of Beethoven or the voice of Jennie 
Lind, how strange it was to reflect that they came 
from the deepest proverty! When you are borne on 
wings of lightning in a palace-car, and when you 
contemplate our marvelous railroad system, think 
of "the bare-legged laddie," George Stephenson, 
who gave us the railroad. Ah! poor father and 
mother, in your humble home, you may have a 
George Stephenson or a Jenny Lind in your little 
flock. Remember that He who is now called Lord 
of all was once a carpenter. If He had been born 
rich we might never have heard of Him. "He had 
not where to lay His head." He did not leave 
money enough for His burial; but He has made the 
whole world rich. 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 211 

"What doth the poor man's son inherit? 

Stout muscles and a sinewy heart, 
A hardy frame, a hardier spirit: 

King of two hands, he does his part 

In every useful toil and art: 
A heritage, it seems to me, 
A king might wish to hold in free. 

What doth the poor man's son inherit? 

Wishes o'er joyed with humble things, 
A rank adjudged by toil-won merit, 

Content that from employment springs, 

A heart that in his labor sings: 
A heritage, it seems to me, * 
A king might wish to hold in fee.'' — Lowell. 

I should be sorry to think that anything I have 
said would make any man discontented with his 
lot or with his country. It is a glorious country, 
with all its faults, and it gives us large opportun- 
ites. If your lot is hard, you will only make it 
harder by hasty words and acts. Consider the 
fable of the discontented colt, that called a council 
of horses, and harangued them on their wrongs. 
"Down," he cried "with our drivers! I propose 
that hereafter we kick our masters, tear the harn- 
ess, break away from the load, and dash into the 
fields, where we shall be free." All the horses 
neighed and stamped applause. Then an old 
broken-down horse walked forward, and they all 
expected a savage speech; but he quietly said: 
"Comrades, it is true that some of us have hard 
masters, but they give us fodder and shelter; if we 
kick them, they will whip us all the more; if we 



212 THE GOLDEN RULE. 

run into the wilderness, we will find scanty feed, 
and be exposed to wild beasts; soon the winter will 
come, and we shall have no food or shelter. I 
shall stay with my master.' ' This speech was not 
applauded, but it broke up the meeting. You may 
say, "We are not stupid beasts that must submit to 
a superior race." Very well, then, show your 
superior wisdom by superior conduct. Do with 
your might what your hands find to do, and keep 
your head busy with plans for improving yourself 
and your surroundings by all means that I have 
suggested — or rather, by all means, whatever they 
may be. Help to make the world better, as it 
surely will be. 

"Oppression shall not always reign: 
There comes a brighter day, 
When freedon, burst from every chain, 

Shall have triumphant way: 
Then right shall over might prevail, 
And truth, like hero armed in mail, 
Shall hold eternal sway." — H. Ware. 

While We are under the present system, let the 
rich seek, above all things, to be rich in good 
works. This is the sweetest privilege of wealth; 
as the Chinese proverb says: "The pleasure of 
doing good is the only one that never wears out." 
"O, rich man's son, there is a toil 
That with all others level stands: 
Large charity doth never soil, 
But only whiten soft, white hands: 
This is the best crop from thy lands — 
A heritage, it seems to me, 
Worth being rich, to hold in fee." — Lowell. 



THE RULE OF GOLD. 213 

But remember that justice is better than char- 
ity. And it is equally important that the poor 
should be just to the rich and to each other. Let 
us all, by fair play, speed the good time coming. 
Every right act brings it nearer. 

"Then let us pray, that come it may, 

As come it will, for a' that, 
That sense and worth o'er all the earth 

Shall win their way, for a' that, 

'Tis coming yet, for a' that, 
That man to man, the world o'er, 

Shall brothers be, for a' that." — Burns. 

Dear reader, if you and I can not live to see the 
Golden Age, we can have it in our own hearts, if 
we will not be governed by the Rule of Gold, but 
by the Golden Rule. 

Since this book was written public events have 
occured which confirm its contents. First, 
our state legislature passed the Allen Bill which 
gives despotic power to a private capitalist. Second, 
we were at war with Spain. These two Christian 
nations could not or would not settle their difference 
without the sword! Third, Grain buyers and 
farmers are hoarding wheat to make the Leiter loaf 
heavier and heavier. 

Much remains to be done. Still so much has 
been done that I am hopeful for the future. 



